


White Sails

by Lovelydarknightmare



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Harry Has a Crush, M/M, Narnia is threatened, They all are adults, on Edmund, peter is an ass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:15:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28860924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovelydarknightmare/pseuds/Lovelydarknightmare
Summary: Edmund Pevensie sailed to the end of the world to find assistance in order to save Narnia from destruction. It is on Hogward's shores that he arrived the day after the end of the Wizarding War. Harry didn't hesitate very long before sailing away with this mysterious king and neither did Hermione, Luna, Draco and Blaise, eager to run away from the damages of the war.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Blaise Zabini, Edmund Pevensie/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Susan Pevensie, Luna Lovegood/Lucy Pevensie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: White Sails
> 
> genre: adventure and romance
> 
> fandom: Crossover Harry Potter / Chronicles of Narnia
> 
> author: Lovelydarknightmare
> 
> word count: 45k and counting (still have the last chapter to write)
> 
> pairings: Harry/Edmund; Luna/Lucy; Draco/Blaise; Susan/Hermione
> 
> synopsis: Edmund Pevensie sailed to the end of the world to find assistance to save Narnia from destruction. It is on Hogward's shores that he arrived the day after the end of the Wizarding War. Harry didn't hesitate very long before sailing away with this mysterious king and neither did Hermione, Luna, Draco and Blaise, eager to run away from the damages of the war.
> 
> Canon or not canon?: It is definitly non canon as you could have guessed, I am making the war last a bit longer, but apart from that, there is no major changes. Both the wizards/witches and the Pevensies are in their twenties and late teens for Lucy.
> 
> disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Narnia, only using them for fun
> 
> author's note: Welcome to everyone who ended up on this humble page! I wrote this fic last summer and decided it was about time to share it. The fic is mostly finished, I just need to make some editing and to write the last chapter. I have not decided of a publication rythm yet, so please tell me in the reviews what you prefer! And I would like to thanks Ali for the corrections she made!
> 
> It all started from a silly idea and now I have 45k words. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it. I had some fun with the pairings as you will see.

Dust and ruins were all of what was left of the battlefield. The war ended that night, among other things. Hogwarts' gigantic dark figure stood still, wrapped in the mist of dawn, welcoming the glory of a new era. An era of peace and reconstruction.  
He left the heavy atmosphere of the castle, wand still in hand, to let himself fall on the ground in front of the lake. Less than a decade after his return, Voldemort died once and for all. And Harry was free to live. An hour ago, he was someone else. An hour ago, he had not killed Voldemort yet. In order to free himself (and all the Wizarding World) of the worst mass murderer of their history, he had to become a monster himself. A killer.

His breathing was erratic, almost desperate. Behind him, the roar of victory echoed in the shadows. They won. They were alive – most of them. But Harry didn’t join them. He stayed on the banks of the lake, his gaze lost into the line where the water and the sky were collapsing together. Waiting for something. Or someone. Waiting to find a new purpose in his life.  
Hermione joined him later without a word. The sun was slowly rising behind them, warming their back. The war was over, yet it didn’t seem like it was actually over. How can it be? The war had always been there. They had always lived in the conflict one way or another since they were eleven. Hermione sighed and put a hand on Harry's back.

“Have you seen this?” He blurted, pointing the horizon in front of them.  
Something was shining on the surface of the water, far away, on the other side of the lake. Hermione squinted a little. 'No. Not really, it's just the sunlight.'  
Harry shook his head. 'No, they're something else. I see it'.  
“You are seeing things,” said the young woman.

An hour later, they joined what was left of their army. Some had already left with their family. Some were starting to organize the dead and the injured. Some were wandering as Harry and Hermione did. Things needed to be done. Bury the dead. Heal the dying. And rebuild the ruins the castle had become.  
Harry just could not go anywhere near his friends' corpses. His heart would explode. He was feeling empty, like a big cup or a plaster sculpture. His purpose in life was fulfilled now, and he had nothing to fight for anymore. He needed to find something to do, to make him feel whole again. For the time being, he went with a team to stabilize the castle – to make sure it doesn’t fall on the head of the injured.  
Until it was dark again outside, no one stopped working. More forces were allocated to the reconstruction. The castle had been more damaged than it seemed at first. It was a miracle that it was still standing. A miracle or magic maybe. Eventually both.

Harry laid down on a stone in a corridor. It is where MacGonagall found him. She sat next to him, while he straightened.  
“I am so sorry you went through all of this, Harry,” she said. “The child you were should have been protected from all this. I am sorry you were not.”  
“I'm alright, professor. I haven’t been angry about this for some time. And you are definitely not the person who should apologize. You were the one protecting us from the beginning.”  
They both knew who he was referring to, but none of them mentioned him. Everyone knew what kind of man Albus Dumbledore was during his time.  
“You should eat. It is not healthy to languish in the corridors.” While saying these words, she stood up and waited for him to join her in her walk toward the Great Hall. People were gathering here. On one side, the injured were laid down in makeshift beds. On the other side, people were sitting on the ground, on benches, on what was left of the tables, with a bowl of slop. The rattle of spoons echoed in the dead-silent hall. After the joy of victory, the time of mourning had come.

Harry took a bowl from Hermione's hands and chose to sit in the corner of the room, from where he could see everyone – old habits. His friend joined him after she had taken her own meal. They didn’t remember ever seeing the Great Hall so quiet. Ron was on the other side of the room, with all his family. Percy and Fred were lying in one of the makeshift beds, between life and death, but much closer to death. He and Hermione stayed away, to let them grieve. The Weasleys needed time.  
Harry glared at another group. Two Slytherins who fought next to them – more or less. Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. No one really knew their real allegiance. They seemed to change theirs when convenient. Hermione's theory was that their true allegiance was themselves. And Harry could hardly say he disagreed.  
The two young men were eating apart from the rest of the group. Everyone close to them seemed ready to go directly for their throat at the first sign of a smirk. Or even if they started breathing too loudly. They were obviously putting a lot of effort into not being noticed.  
Harry knew Luna was somewhere even if he couldn’t see her. But he could see Neville who was watching over Hannah who was sleeping. She lost an arm and a lot of blood, but she will live. Remus will not. Harry let a tearing sigh out. Neither will Sirius. Or Tonks. Or Seamus. Padma. Slughorn. Mary. Andrew. Fleur. And all the one he did not even know.

Fred died during the night. Harry could feel his guts clenching when he heard the desperate sob of Molly in the morning. He didn’t handle lost very well, so he left the great hall to find his way to the lake once again.  
He had thought when he was younger that he was going to get used to death after what he had been through. But no. Grief is always here hitting you at the core. He still heard this little voice in his head who told him this would not have happened if it was not about him. It was his blood who revived Voldemort and made him ten times more powerful. His own blood in this monster's veins. If he had died during the tournament, if he never had grabbed this bloody cup, they would all be alive today. He would not have buried his godfathers the day before after so many years of war.

He was trembling when he reached the lake’s bank. His heart dropped in his feet when he looked up. The small shining light on the lake of the morning before was now a dozen of white sails above a wooden deck. A ship. Its figurehead was a gigantic golden lion who roared toward him.  
He shook his head. The lack of sleep didn’t do him much good. But when he stared again, the ship was still there, except a bit closer maybe. By Merlin's beard, what a bloody ocean-going ship was doing on Hogwarts' lake? Panic started to rise in his blood. Whatever that was, he was no ready to deal with it. He did not want to have to deal with anything. He was weary of that kind of situation.  
“He arrives at last,” said a voice behind him. Luna stood next to him with a large smile.  
“Who? Who arrives?”  
“You'll see soon enough, Harry, and I believed you will be quite fond of him.”  
“You mean you know who’s coming?”  
“No, not yet. But we will,” she responded with an ethereal voice.

Luna was acting as Luna as ever, which was not to appease Harry, but as long as she was not worried, everything should be okay.  
It was not long after that everyone gathered on the side of the lake next to Harry as the rumour of a ship spread in the castle. Even Malfoy and Zabini were there, on the edge of the group. One could recognize a human figure on the stern, which only fed the murmur of the crowd. Harry was nervous.  
The ship berthed a little too close to the bank. A walkway slipped off the desk to the ground and a man appeared. A very pale young man, not much older than Harry, wearing a purple cloak on the top of medieval outfits. And with a silver crown on his head. The crowd was very much silent at this point.

“Who are you and what bring you at Hogwarts?” said professor MacGonagall, stepping out of the group in direction of the walkway, wand in hand.  
“I am King Edmund Pevensie the Just. Have I reached the edge of the world?” asked the young man. “Is this a place where I could find assistance?”  
It did not take MacGonagall very long to disperse the crowd. She sent them back to work and took the man to her office. They needed to talk. Harry was confused by all this. This man – this king? - seemed to get out of a fairy tale with his dark hair and the sword he was wearing at his belt. He wanted to follow them in MacGonagall's office, but she dismissed him. She made it very clear his presence in the meeting was not required.

Hermione had a hard time too to not sneak into the office. As Harry and her were walking back to the Great Hall, she did not stop making theory out of the blue on this man, and what he wanted help for.  
The name on everyone’s mouths all day was Edmund Pevensie's. As everyone was looking for a solution to not think about the war and the deaths, this distraction was very welcomed. The stranger seemed to have not left MacGonagall's office. At the end of the day, Harry was lurking around the office in the hope to catch the man and find answers to his many questions. Was he himself looking for distractions from reality?

The door burst open and he heard voices from inside the office.  
“I have crossed half of the world, lost my crew and I came here begging you for help, how dare you treating me like some disturbance!”  
“I don't think you understand very well the situation here, young man,” said the professor. “An eight-year-long war ended least than two days ago; you cannot come here to ask us to join another conflict from an imaginary world! And most of the people here are kids, my predecessor might have permitted this insanity, but I will not let kids fight. Never.” Her voice was harsh. “You may stay at the castle for the night, but I want you away at dawn tomorrow.” And she left the office.

From where he was, Harry could hear Edmund Pevensie sighed without seeing him. He was thorned between rushing into the office to finally know what was going on or rushing to Hermione to tell what he just heard. But his curiosity to speak to that man got the upper hand.  
He stepped into the office and cleared his throat. Edmund turned toward him very quickly before looking disappointed.  
“I thought your headmistress changed her mind,” he plainly said, “but I see it's not the case.”  
“I'm Harry. Would you like to share your demand with more people? I can't promise we will go with you, but we could at least know why you came here, and where you're from.”  
“Wouldn't your headmistress disapprove?” Edmund asked. “She is not someone I would want as an enemy.”  
“She didn't forbid you from talking to us, did she?” Edmund shook his head in return.  
“Okay. Then, be by the lake, in the forest after sundown.” And Harry left the office.

This man made him feel unease, and he did not know why. His gaze maybe. Or his arrogance. Harry hoped Hermione would not disapprove of his decision. He wanted to know.  
Later that evening, Edmund walked into a clearing by the lake, where a dozen people were waiting for him. He went straight for Harry.  
“You forgot to tell me you were bringing an audience. I would have worked on my speech,” he said.  
“Well, I figure you would want an audience, your highness, wouldn't you?” ironized Harry.  
Edmund rolled his eyes. Everyone was looking at him now. They all seemed to be young, as Harry, not a single proper grown-up was there. Even if not calling them grown-up might be actually incorrect. Not that Edmund cared.  
Hermione stepped forward.  
“You came here for a reason. We’re to listen to you.”  
He cleared his throat looking around him. It was definitely not the kind of people he thought he would find to help him.  
“Some presentations are needed then. I am Edmund Pevensie, one of the kings and queens of Narnia. A world that doesn't exist in this dimension. But in a different one. The kings and queens of Narnia are my siblings. There is four of us: Peter, Susan, Lucy and myself. Our kingdom is under attack. Dark creatures are attacking villages at the borders. They don't loot, they kill. And they leave behind them villages devastated by plague. Nothing we have tried to do has worked so far. The oracle told us we would find help at the end of the world, on the other side of the ocean. I left with a crew of ten men and women. We were caught in a terrible storm, and my crew were washed away by the ocean, dead for the sake of Narnia. When I regain consciousness, I was on this very lake, sailing toward your castle.”  
Rumblings and murmurs started growing in the small crowd. The conclusion most came to was that this man was insane. How couldn’t he be?  
“So, you came for help?” asked Hermione. Edmund nodded back at her. She continued, “What is across the borders of Narnia?”  
“Nothing, I'm afraid. Narnia is a very special reality. It has to be understood as a snow globe: there is nothing outside of it. The only way to go somewhere else is to cross dimensions, as I did,” he answered.  
“So, these Dark creatures come from literally nowhere?” recapped Harry, “and an oracle said we’d help you?” He laid against a tree. “Great.”  
Edmund did not answer. He scanned the clearing with insistence, trying to guess who would help and who would not.  
“I cannot, and I will not force any of you to join me,” said Edmund, “I am now aware of the situation your world is at the moment, and I will not resent you if you decide to stay here. Your headmistress wants me gone by dawn. You will find me aboard my ship.”

He made a sign in Harry’s direction and left the clearing.  
The crowd stayed silent for a moment. Harry did not wait for them to start discussing. He left the clearing in Edmund’s step. He did not know what to do. He understood MacGonagall’s reluctance to let them know. Harry wanted to help that man. Not only because he was charismatic, but because he needed help and Harry was in desperate need of a distraction.  
Edmund was walking by the lake several meters in front of Harry who didn’t realize the man had slowed his pace down.  
“What do you think of my request?” said Edmund when Harry arrived at his side.  
“I think you must be desperate to go so far to find help. But what kind of help do you really need?”  
Edmund smirked.  
“I believe the key to this answer lays into your magical nature. If it was humans that could help Narnia, we would not need your help. And the only difference between you and me is that you are a wizard. I am only merely trying to understand an oracle.”  
“I had myself my fair share of oracles and prophecies,” said Harry.  
They stayed silent, both of them facing the lake.  
“I will give you my answer tomorrow,” decided Harry.

He left the young king alone after glancing at him one last time. He was mysterious. They were something in him that intrigued Harry. He was curious as he had not been in a very long time.  
He met back with Hermione. She has been waiting for him.  
“So, What do you think of him?” he asked.  
“You mean, what do I think of his request I hope, Harry? I am not checking him out, not like you.”  
“Please, Hermione, don’t go into this again! it’s not what I’m asking you about!” snapped Harry dryly.  
Hermione smirked before giving him an answer.  
“He got into a lot of trouble to find help. It must be a disastrous situation. But it sounds incredibly dangerous too. Plus, the war just ended… I really understand MacGonagall on this one.”  
Harry bit his lips and looked away for a second.  
“Oh no, C’mon Harry! Don’t tell me you are really thinking about leaving with him?” said Hermione with a sigh.  
“I am really considering it,” he answered. “We know what it’s like to need help. And if I’m being totally honest, I don’t really see a future for me here. At least not right now. I need to do something else now.”  
“You might not be able to go back here. It’s another dimension. If a portal doesn’t open after whatever this is is finished, you might be stuck in another world.”  
“I think it’s worth the risk,” he said before walking toward the castle to find a place to sleep. Hermione sighed again.  
“Is it?” she said watching him leave. She did not know what to think of all of this. She too wanted to help, but after years of fighting, she did not know if she would be able to do it anymore.

In his bed – which would be more adequately described as a sleeping bag on the ground – Harry couldn’t sleep. Edmund’s words were turning again and again in his mind. He never thought that there could be anything like another dimension, and he was intrigued. His friends did not seem surprised by the news. It must have been another thing about the Wizarding World Harry ignored. And even if with the years his knowledge grew bigger, he definitely was lacking much information, from how to cook with magic to the common acknowledgement of the existence of other dimensions.  
He never thought he would survive the end of the war. At first, he did not think that he will ever turn twenty. The war lasted longer and proved him wrong last year. He survived until his twentieth birthday. He survived the war. And know, he had nothing to do. No hope for the Wizarding World. No hope for himself.  
Maybe Narnia would provide him another hope? Or an escape road. He felt trapped here. Hogwarts – his only home – was destroyed. He needed to move on in this world, but nothing seemed right to him. He was good at one thing: running away.  
He finally felt asleep of exhaustion several hours before dawn with his decision made.

Before dawn, a few people were gathered on the bank of the lake in front of the boat. The sun had not yet emerged from behind the mountains, but already a glow was visible in the sky. The cold breeze blew through their hair.  
Harry seemed surprised to see Hermione.  
“You’re coming after all?” he asked.  
“I can’t say I’m not curious about seeing another dimension. And I definitely can’t let you go alone; you will end up dead without me.”  
He grinned. She was terribly right. Without her, he would have died more time than reasonable during the war.  
Around them were Luna, who was slowly dancing to the sound of music only her could hear, Malfoy and Zabini were next to each other looking at the boat. The reasons for their presence were so obvious it was almost painful to see. Harry was looking discreetly at them. Before becoming part of the Resistance, they were deatheaters, and no one really trusted them because of it. Even if they didn’t choose to became deatheathers at sixteen. Even if they joined the Resistance on the first occasion. They may have done it for self-protection, but it didn’t erase the fights they took part in and risked their lives in. They stayed untrustworthy.  
No matter their help to the Resistance, the most likely scenario for their future would be a purge against them by random wizards. Or vengeance from remaining deatheaters. Harry knew it, and they sure did as well. So why not sailing away toward another dimension, away from their past.  
And for Luna, it was another form of obvious. She seemed to have been waiting for this.  
On the other hand, Ron did not come with his best friends. He just lost his brother, and his mother would never handle losing another child. Harry had said a silent goodbye to him before leaving the castle.

Suddenly, a voice echoed behind them.  
“Are you certain of this decision, my dears?” said MacGonagall with an ounce of pain in her voice. “You might not be able to ever come back. You all deserve rest and peace after this horrible war who took away your youth.”  
Luna did not seem to hear her, and the two Slytherins did not bother to look at her – she was not talking to them. Harry and Hermione turned toward their headmistress and friend. She looked tired and desperate. She aged a lot these past few years, her face had more wrinkles, and her hair was whiter.  
“I can’t stop you to leave, unfortunately. You should not waste your life in another conflict. I regret that children young as you were thrown into the war. What a waste. Do not ever believe that it is your duty to fight in any war or conflict.”  
“We made our decision, professor, I know the consequences and I’m willingly taking the risk,” said Harry. “I am really grateful for everything you did for us after Dumbledore passed away – and even before. We own you our life and our freedom. Thank you, and I really hope to see you again.”  
MacGonagall was not very far from bursting into tears with emotion. Harry and Hermione were also getting emotional. It is this moment that Edmund chose to appear on deck and greet his new crew.  
“Good Morning, as one the King of Narnia, me, Edmund Pevensie, would like to thank you for the prodigious help you accepted to grant the Kingdom of Narnia,” he said. “We shall leave the shore shortly before dawn.” He showed them the walkway and bowed his head toward MacGonagall.

When the sun started to rise above the mountains, the ship was already moving away from the Castle of Hogwarts. Malfoy and Zabini were sitting down near the mast compulsively ignoring Luna who had started singing. Harry and Hermione were lying against the wooden freeboard, watching MacGonagall, the small crowd who watched them leave and the castle’s ground becoming smaller and smaller as they sailed away.  
Edmund joined them after trying to have a decent conversation – and giving up – with Luna. Zabini had accepted to steer the ship for now. He looked at Harry for a second before staring at the Scottish mountains around them.  
“I am really grateful that you accepted to join me,” he said.  
“What kind of world is Narnia?” asked Hermione, “were you born there?”  
Edmund chuckled.  
“It’s a very long story. I have been in Narnia for eleven years. I don’t remember much of my previous life, only that I lived in England, in London during a war and that I had to leave the city because of the bombs.”  
Hermione gasped and looked back and forth between Edmund and Harry.  
“The London Blitz,” she muttered.  
“We seem to come from similar worlds,” said Harry, looking at his hands.  
“Except that I never fought in that war. I was too young. But I had my fair share of battlefields in Narnia.”  
“Who lives in Narnia?” asked Hermione.  
“Narnian.” Seeing her doubtful glare, he added, “centaurs, satyrs, dwarfs, speaking animals, living trees, naiads, nymphs and the list go on.”  
“No humans?” asked Harry, startled.  
“No. None. My sibling and I are the only one and we come from somewhere else.”  
“How come the only humans are kings and queens?” asked suspiciously Hermione.  
“A prophecy,” said Edmund.  
Hermione muttered something about human supremacy and colonialism when Edmund walked away as it was his turn to steer. Harry watched him moving around the ship and smiled. He knew what Hermione meant. It was the same with magical creatures and house elves. And he knew she was right, just the vast majority of the world was not ready to listen to her.  
“Aren’t you curious about what Narnia looks like?” she asked. “What life and climate and nature life will be the same in another dimension?”  
Harry grinned at her.  
“We will soon know,” he said.

The lake seemed to have stretched as they were sailing West. They should have reached the end of the lake for hours, but they were still sailing in a gigantic pool of water which was getting darker and darker every minute. The blue sky was turning into colossal grey yellowish cumulonimbi. The clouds were getting down, closer and closer to the water to the point of almost collapsing together. The temperature was dropping. The wizards and witches aboard were looking around, their concern growing. Edmund sighed.  
“The storm is coming,” he said, “go into the ship’s hold.”  
When Hermione raised her concern of letting him alone on deck he dryly said:  
“I already lost my crew once because they got swept away by the waves. Go inside!”  
The wind was hissing in the masts. It was almost difficult to stand on deck. Luna, Malfoy, Zabini, Hermione and Harry went down to the hold in silence. The ship swayed into the waves that were submerging the deck. The figurehead was almost only underwater now. Inside, the passengers were rolling to one side to another of the hold. It was impossible to stay still. Through the cracks of the deck, water was pouring continuously. Hermione, Malfoy, and Zabini were trying to stop the hold from being flooded.  
Suddenly, they heard Edmund’s voice on the deck cursing loudly as a wave hit the ship more violently than the others. Harry muttered something to himself before reaching the trapdoor. Hermione tried to stop him, but it was too late. Before closing it, he yelled ‘Stay inside!’.  
As he went out on deck, he was almost immediately swept away by a pack of cold water which freezes him to the core. He looked to the upper deck where he could not see Edmund behind the helm. He got his wand out, cast a waterproof spell on himself, and rushed toward the upper deck. To climb up there, he held his wand in his mouth. It was impossible to walk or even stand on the deck. Water was everywhere. It was a miracle they have not sunk yet. The wind was deafening him, and he could not hear Edmund, but he saw him, hooked to the shroud, almost overboard.  
Harry grabbed the helm and cast a Levicorpus toward Edmund. The young king flew toward Harry. He could see his mouth wide open but not hear his screams. He grabbed him and they both hold desperately to the helm.  
“I got you!” shouted Harry.  
“You should have stayed inside,” yelled Edmund in his ears.  
“A proper thank you would suffice! Hold to the helm!” said Harry while casting a waterproof spell on him as well as a protection spell.  
They needed to hold to something to not roll down into the lake, the sea, or whatever this water was. The mainsail seemed to have been torn apart and was fluttering in an awful noise. Waves high of several meters – maybe ten or twelve – were splashing on them from every direction. Everything around the ship was dark as ink.  
While trying to cast another spell, Harry knocked his hand onto the helm and his wand felt on the deck and rolled away.  
“Fuck!” he swore.  
Panicked appeared on Edmund’s face, he almost dropped the helm to go get it. Harry caught him just in time.  
“Wait!” he yelled at the king, forcing him to hold the helm again. Then, he raised his hand in front of his and shouted “Accio wand!”.  
Just before it was about to reach the dark water, the wand stopped its fall and then flew back up to Harry’s hand. He shoved it inside his trousers to keep it safe.  
“I thought you could not do magic without your wand!” yelled Edmund.  
“I’m sort of an exception!” yelled back Harry.  
He put his arm around Edmund to secure him as he was holding the helm to the point of hurting himself. His joints were white – bloodless. And Edmund’s were not in better condition. Harry was about to yell something else when the wind brutally stopped, and the waves’ size decreased. The dark fog around them lifted in minutes and the sky was once again clear.  
The storm stopped as quickly as it had appeared and revealed an azure sky and a pacific blue ocean were naiads started to swim around the ship. The air warmed up almost to tropical weather. Harry stood up and held his hand to help Edmund to go back on his feet. Both men looked around them completely astonished. The air was rich of smells Harry had no idea could exist.  
The trapdoor of the ship’s hold opened, and the other passengers went out on the deck. They could not hide their amazement to the brutal change of weather. Hermione looked relieved when she saw Harry and Edmund standing next to one another on the upper deck.  
When Harry came down the deck, Malfoy looked more green than usual and Luna smiled at him and said:  
“You should not be ashamed of throwing up, Draco, it is completely normal to be seasick.”  
Malfoy was only able to point a finger at her direction and growl dangerously before feeling sick again. Hermione chuckled, and Zabini patted Malfoy’s shoulder in appeasement.  
Edmund was back at steering the ship. Harry noticed how he was staring at the horizon as if he expected something to appear there. Their eyes crossed path and Harry smiled to him. Edmund nodded in response.

Several hours went by in what appeared to be a summer heat before they could discern a shore above the horizon’s line. At first, they could not be sure if it was a cloud very low on the ocean or the coast. As they got closer, they could see a very thin sandy-yellowish line just above the water. Edmund told them it was a beach just under their castle.  
Something was shining above the long beach. A deep white glimmer in which the sun was reflecting itself attracted Harry’s attention. He went back to the upper deck to get a better glance. He could not figure what it was, but his curiosity did not go unnoticed. He heard Edmund behind him told him with a lower voice:  
“It’s our castle, Cair Paravel.”

To be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back for this new chapter. I hope you'll like this one!

The sun was high in the sky when they reached the shore. The castle Harry’s had seen, Cair Paravel, covered in white marble, was even more magnificent on the top of that hill than what any of them could have imagined. Narnian flags were fluttering above the castle and above every ship anchored in the delta. Edmund seemed please at the idea of being back to his kingdom, his home.

The witches and wizards were staring with amazement at the harbour in the delta, caught into a perpetual movement of sailors and workers and merchants, like a giant anthill, teeming with life. They could see the large, paved road that connected the colossal castle to the harbour going up the hill like a silver thread. A horseman was rushing down the hill as they were mooring at the docks.

Edmund was a good sailor; he needed no help to manoeuvre the ship against the dock. But his passengers were slightly clueless of how to moor a ship. Luckily, sailors recognized the royal expedition and rushed to assist them. Edmund could see the sadness on several faces when they notice the crew’s cruel absence.

The harbour master – a satyr – rushed to welcome them himself.

“Your Highness, I am relieved to see you returned safely,” he said, bowing in front of Edmund.

“I want to present to you my dearest apologies. I lost my crew when crossing between worlds. If it were not for my new passengers, I would have died crossing back. This is a tragedy. The crew will be honoured as they should for their sacrifice,” pronounced Edmund slowly, clenching his jaws.

“It was a dangerous mission, your highness. These sailors were ready to take the risk for the sake of Narnia,” he answered. “Your brother, High King Peter, is on his way to greet you personally.”

Edmund nodded silently. He felt terribly guilty about the dramatic death of his crew. He knew very well he could not have saved them. But he was their king, for God’s sake, he should have been able to do something!

As the witches and wizards left the salty deck of their ship for the safety of the docks, Edmund saw his brother going in their direction. He sighed. He was not looking forward to face him. Peter focused on his failures more than anything else.

Unaware of Edmund’s thoughts, Harry gasped when he walked on the ground.

“By Merlin, I’m lighter!” he chirped. “Do you feel it, Hermione?”

She jumped in place several times looking amazed.

“Yes! The gravity isn’t the save than at home! This is brilliant!”

Malfoy and Zabini both rolled their eyes and refused to try to jump when Luna asked them to.

_“We_ aren’t kids,” taunted Draco.

“Edmund!” yelled a deep voice. All of them looked up to see a man older than any of them, blond with a short bear, wearing a very golden cloak and a not less golden crown. Draco snorted and muttered something about proper taste and fashion. But he was nonetheless incredibly charismatic.

“Peter,” said Edmund when his brother arrived at his side. He welcomed him with a short embrace.

“Thank God, you are alive,” said Peter.

He looked around him, met eyes with the witches and the wizards who were staring at him.

“Your crew?” he asked.

Edmund lowered his head and said, “Lost at sea. A storm hit us when we crossed.”

Peter sent him a severe stare.

“I told you it was dangerous!” he said.

“It’s not like we had another choice!” barked Edmund.

Harry observed the exchange between the two men closely. They were definitely brothers, but they looked so different. Not only physically, even if Edmund’s bare chin and dark hair contrasted strongly with Peter’s blondness. Their behaviour seemed as different as oil and water, even if Harry could not really explain how he perceived it. There was something to be noticed.

After a silent exchange with his brother, Peter turned toward the passengers.

“Welcome to Narnia. I am High King Peter the Magnificent, King Edmund’s brother.”

They all answered politely without stopping to stare at him.

“I will escort you up to the castle, so you can rest before being introduced to the court,” he announced before walking away.

Edmund sighed again before following his brother. The witches and wizards followed behind. They were staring at every ship, every sailor – none of them human of course. Despite the attacks the kingdom was encountering, Narnia was at its Golden Age. The kingdom was visibly very rich and prosperous. And even the air was screaming prosperity and glory, in a complete contrast with the borders.

Harry caught up Edmund who was now walking beside his brother.

“I thought you were dead,” explained Peter. “And you were not coming back to prove me wrong.”

“I only left a couple of days ago,” said Edmund.

Peter glared at him.

“No. You left two _months_ ago. We were worried sick. I had to stop Lucy from going to look for you.”

The surprise hit Edmund hard. He clenched his fist.

“Fuck!”

“Language!”

“Oh shut up, Peter. How is Weasel? Is he alright?”

“No. I’m sorry. He passed away a week after you left. The plague had weakened him too much.”

Edmund felt sadness and rage filling him. He clenched his jaws to not display his distress. Harry saw his pain, and he understood as no one else could. Nothing was more terrible than losing someone. Harry’s wounds were still fresh in his mind.

Peter saw Harry’s face. He sighed and explained.

“Before my brother left to find help, one of our friends who was investigating the attacks got sick. The same plague that killed the other villagers. And no cure works on that disease.”

Cair Paravel was even more astonishing from the inside. Corners, corridors, stairs opened into gigantic rooms, all of them in the purest of all marble, covered in exquisite tapestries and carpets. The castle was more similar to a small city surrounded by luxuriant gardens. Every member of the court was wearing clothing in the richest silk, velvet and lace.

The smells were indescribable, as if the Eastern Ocean, the spices, the summer warmth, and the gold all melted in one heavy perfume. As they walked up the white stairs toward the guest wing, Harry could hear birds singing from the nearest terrace in a surprising concerto. King Peter was still in front of them, showing them around quickly in the labyrinth of corridors and terraces. Edmund had excused himself to retire in his apartments and embrace his sisters.

They were introduced into an antechamber which opened into four bedrooms, and domestics brought them clean clothes and refreshments. Their last meal was a long time ago, and the young witches and wizards almost threw themselves onto the dishes. Desserts, fish and seafood dishes, fruits, and jams of all sorts. And some very fresh water and lemonade.

Draco and Blaise left the antechamber quickly into their room. If a room needed to be share, it was theirs. The two of them were inseparable, it was common knowledge by now.

They all needed to clean themselves and get off their rags they have worn since the battle. They were still smelling like a battlefield, covered in dirt and dry blood. And after the storm, they had stiffened with salt – and vomit for Draco. The clothes they were given were simple, tunic and trousers, with a large belt and soft leather boots. But the cloaks were colourful and sewed with silver and gold. No one should have to walk into the throne hall with rags.

After a few cleaning spells, Harry, Luna, and Hermione met on the antechamber’s balcony. They could see the ocean below them crashing on the cliffs, and the merpeople waving at them. They waved back.

“By Merlin, this world is brilliant!” chuckled Hermione with a large smile.

“I dreamt of it, but I never thought it would be so beautiful,” said Luna softly.

“You had heard of Narnia before?” asked Harry, astonished.

“My mum used to tell me those tales about another magic world far away, on the other side of an ocean. She always told me one day I will see it. And I believe her.”

“And she seemed to have been right,” added Hermione without looking away from the crashing waves.

Luna nodded happily with a giant smile.

“I am stunned that we can still use our magic here,” confessed Hermione. “You fixed the main sail like it was absolutely nothing, Harry.”

He nodded.

“The magic feels more natural, easier to use here,” he admitted. “As if the magic was begging us to use her.”

“You don’t feel it into the air?” asked Luna.

Harry and Hermione shared a look.

“What?”

“The magic! It’s filling every one of my breath, it’s almost buzzing. This world is made of magic,” she said.

They knew that Luna had this very special connexion to the magic around them. She was able to feel the slightest of all variation in the magic. And this had saved their life a great amount of time already. She had a gift, but many people tend to disregard her and her abilities.

They were almost forgetting about the war, their war. It was so close to their heart and so far away from their eyes. Pretending it neither happened was their first reflex when they arrived in Narnia, even if they knew it wouldn’t last long. They will be caught up by their past one way or another.

There was a knock on the door, and a very well-groomed beaver announced them the kings and queens were ready to welcome them officially in the throne hall in front of the court.

“You only need to smile and to bow a little, my dears,” he explained when Hermione asked about the etiquette.

When the majestic doors of the throne hall opened in front of them, they gasped at the sight of the colossal room, flanked by two rows of monumental columns. A deep crimson carpet lead toward the end of the hall where four stone thrones stood beneath a nave of stained glass. On these thrones, they could see Peter and Edmund, and two women on their left as they got closer under the sound of trumpets. What must be the royal guards were standing all along the way on both sides of the carpet. And behind them, a crowd of members of the royal court was examining them with curiosity.

As they reached the thrones, the trumpets stopped, and they bowed. Draco and Harry both looked very uncomfortable in the middle of this crowd when the others did not seem to mind all the glares. Edmund nodded at Harry when their eyes met. The youngest of the women waved discreetly at them with a large grin.

Peter stood up and the rumour stopped in the hall. He looked even taller on the podium.

“I would like to present to you the brave men and women who accepted to help the kingdom of Narnia in this puzzling time, and I want to personally welcome them as our guests. They are wizards and witches from another world, and as expressed by the Great Oracle, they have the ability to save us from this disaster that consumes the borders. I want to ensure that this Golden Age we are living will last for as long as Narnia does!”

The crowd cheered and shouted loudly, “Long live the queens! Long live the kings! Long lives Narnia!”

Peter raised his hand, and the silence came back. He looked at his guests in the eyes.

“I would like to officially present you to my siblings. You had the chance to meet King Edmund the Just already. Here are Queen Susan the Gentle and Queen Lucy the Valiant.”

They bowed again in their direction. One of them seemed to be older than them and the other younger, but they both looked regal in their throne and crown.

Draco stood closer to Blaise. He did not really like being in the open. Years of hiding in order to survive had left him with fears and anxiety. Harry was in a similar situation. To calm himself, he tried to catch Edmund’s eyes and to not drop it. Keeping his gaze on something familiar helped him. Edmund seemed to notice and hold up his gaze, making almost unnoticeable face comments to his brother’s speech. Hermione noticed Harry’s discomfort and Edmund’s assistance. She could not help but snort with amusement. These two were meant to be friends.

Peter asked them to present themselves and each one of them told their name aloud in more or less convincing manners. At each name, the court cheered at them. When this uncomfortable moment has ended, once again, Peter announced:

“Now, I invite our guest to follow us into the Council Chamber to discuss in private. The court is dismissed!” and then he turned toward the witches and wizards, “If you would follow us.”

The kings and queens stood up and left the room on the side, through a discreet little wooden door. Lucy waited for Hermione and Luna to walk with them and asked them how they were. She really seemed to be the kindest person in every world. Harry rushed discreetly to catch up with Edmund. All his siblings were making him feel uncomfortable. He was not good at meeting new people. Not anymore.

They were introduced into a room with a wooden floor, panelling, and narrow windows. A large table with a map of the kingdom stood in the centre of the room. Other maps and books were filed in bookcases along the walls, which Hermione eyed for a bit too long.

They all stood around the table. The Pevensies on one side, the witches and wizards on the other. On the map, several villages were covered in red ink. Susan followed their stares.

“It’s where it had happened in the past four months,” she explained. “All villages on the borders or less than two miles from it. All attacked by what was described as dark creatures who looked like shadows of knights, very powerful, difficult to fight, and deadly. After the attacks, the villagers who were not killed suffered from an unknown plague that killed them in a week. No cure worked.”

“We sent several expeditions to stop the attacks, to defend the villages and to find where they come from. I took part myself in two of them,” continued Edmund. “We found no clues. Whatever how strong the defences around the villages were, they still attacked every time. Many died in these expeditions.”

Edmund showed them the different villages on the map.

“Did some of these attacked happened at the same time?” asked Harry. He was genuinely interested in this mystery. Mysteries were sort of his thing after all.

“We had reports of at least three attacks that seemed to have happened at the same time across the kingdom,” answered Peter.

“So, attacks are from the same creatures, that are not native from Narnia, all on the border and there is no such thing as an outside the border. And different places, same time. It certainly looks like magic to me,” said Hermione.

“Or like an enemy from another dimension who crossed at the border,” added Harry. “We already know it’s a common situation to cross dimensions to get to Narnia. Why these creatures couldn’t?”

“It is what we are worried about,” said dryly Peter.

“But why wouldn’t they invade completely?” said suddenly Luna. “They could do it, there is not much protection.” At her words, the kings winced. “They don’t plunder, do they?” she asked.

“No, they do not,” said Susan.

They all looked surprised at Luna as if they haven’t thought of this themselves.

“Do pure evil exist?” she asked again.

“I don’t know if pure evil exists,” confessed Hermione, “but here, it’s all about different dimensions and so different understanding of war, invasion, and evil. We can’t know if they are invaders if we only stick to our standards.”

Susan looked at Hermione with a large surprised and friendly smile.

“It is nice to have someone so intelligent around this table for once,” she declared with a snort.

Both Peter and Edmund complained and groaned while Lucy was chuckling discreetly. Harry grinned discreetly. All of this was weird. This, being in another world with new people, trying to find out how to save a kingdom. The war seemed so far away. He thought again of this plague. It was surprising for him. He wasn’t from a generation used to epidemics.

“Do we know how this plague infected the villagers?” he asked, “it could help us understand these creatures.”

“Good idea, Harry,” chimed Hermione while looking at Peter for an answer with avidity.

He looked annoyed for a moment.

“No. We have no certainty so far.”

“At first, we thought it could be from the proximity of the dark creature, but Edmund went back from mission safe and almost healthy,” explained Susan.

“You don’t have much then,” said Luna with a nice smile. They all looked annoyed at least, and furious for Peter. She added, “But it’s good, we can help.”

“But how?” asked Harry. “We are used to deal with dark magic, but we don’t even know what it is.”

“Or even if it’s dark magic,” added Hermione.

“Do you remember, Edmund,” recalled Luna, “What you told Harry, about the Oracle. The answer might be in our magical nature. Our understanding of magic is the key to all of this.”

Edmund and Harry looked at her with surprise, not because of the impressive idea she had, but because none of them remembered telling her about this discussion. Luna was a mystery of her own.

“Then, you need to see the damage by yourselves,” announced Peter. “We will prepare another expedition to the northern border, in the western woods. I will give orders right now, and you will be able to leave in a couple of days.”

“Great, a field trip, again,” mumbled sarcastically Malfoy under his breath.

Both Harry and Blaise snorted. They all had their fair share of expeditions for the Order in the mud and the cold during the war.

“At least, this time the weather seems to be nice and warm, not like last time, we might even tan,” remarked Blaise with a smirk.

They ended the meeting after an official invitation to diner from the Kings and Queens, and the orders to prepare for the expedition. When Edmund asked them if they all knew how to ride a horse, they all looked somewhat worried. There was a two-day trip to the border by _horse_. Harry could swear he heard Hermione muttered under her breath “bloody medieval fantasy world” when they left the Council Chamber.

After a pretty awkward official diner at the royal table on their first night at Cair Paravel with the court, the witches and wizards had two days to enjoy the serenity of the castle before the real beginning of their mission.

Hermione spent a whole lot of time in the castle’s library, in the company of Queen Susan, who seemed to enjoy her presence. Harry tried at first to make her go out, in the gardens, or on the beach with him and Edmund, without any success. “To understand a world, you have to read it!” she told him before closing the door to his face. “You will thank me later when I save your life with my readings. Again.” And she was definitely not wrong, so Harry let her alone with her books and Susan who seemed to enjoy the same kind of indoor distraction.

Harry, on the other side, was an outdoor kind of guy – mostly because he had little interest in reading, and no one could sleep all day when they were in such an amazing location. The court life did not suit him, he preferred to be outside with Edmund who trained all day long, avoiding all his non-mandatory royal duties.

He already heard him say how he was the best swordsman in Narnia a good dozen times by noon. And he offered Harry to teach him the basics of sword fighting and here they were, on the balcony, a good hundred meters above the sparkling ocean, sweating like beasts, trying to have a proper duel. Harry did not stop repeating that with his wand he would have won a long time ago. And each time, Edmund answered ‘Maybe, but this is a _sword_ and I’m winning.’ And both of them were very right.

At some point, the heat of the late morning forced them into a break to get some refreshments. It was summer in Narnia, Cair Paravel was swept by the ocean wind that cooled the worst of the heatwave, but the white stones of the castle were boiling. Harry leaned against the edge of the balcony, looking below him at the ocean. He had rarely seen so much water, nor so many merpeople. Edmund joined him, eating a juicy peach.

“This castle looks like heaven,” said Harry. “I had seen illustrations of fairy tales at school when I was a kid that looked exactly like this.”

Edmund chuckled.

“Yeah, I thought the same thing when I arrived there the first time,” he said with a grin.

“When did you said you arrived here?” asked Harry.

“Eleven years ago.”

“You must have been so young!” he gasped.

“I was ten when I first stepped in Narnia and when I fought my first battle.”

Harry stared at him with surprise. He didn’t really know what to think of Edmund.

“And I thought I was young at my first one,” he said baffled.

“When was it?”

“Well, the first real battle was when I was fifteen, but before that, I had several pretty violent duels, the first being at eleven.”

Edmund nodded slightly.

“We can call it even then,” he teased smirking. “Your world seemed to have been at war for a pretty long time,” he added more seriously.

“Yeah… A dark mage tried and at first succeeded to take over the Wizarding World. He killed my parents when I was a toddler and tried to kill me after this almost every year. It’s not exactly a positive representation of the wizarding society, but there were peaceful moments, as I was told.”

“One individual can cause so much destruction and pain,” Edmund sighed. “When we arrived in Narnia, an evil witch ruled the kingdom.” Harry could feel a deep pain in his voice. Edmund said nothing more. He was looking away.

Harry stared at his pale face for a second, his eyes looked awfully full of guilt. Life was unfair sometimes. Or, as Hermione would say, life can’t be unfair, because life doesn’t have a notion of fairness and unfairness, or even of cruelty, but life can be hard and painful.

“Do you want to keep training?” asked suddenly Edmund. “To have an excuse to decline when Peter will summon us to lunch.”

Harry chuckled. Edmund had this mischievous grin on his face that made his freckles more apparent. They both took their sword and squared up.

These two days in Cair Paravel felt like two seconds. They each stuck in their occupation. Hermione and Susan at the library when she did not need to attend to royal matters. Harry and Edmund training on the balcony of Edmund’s apartments. It seemed that Luna spent the majority of her time in the gardens, surrounded by big colourful tropical flowers and in the company of Lucy. They seemed to be fond of each other. And Draco and Blaise spent these two days in their room doing Merlin knows what.

Every morning, the witches and wizards were on their own, as it was the time for royal justice. On their marble throne, the kings and queens were dispensing justice and welcoming their people for official audiences. One morning, Harry sneaked discreetly into the throne hall, by the little wooden door to observe them. It had not yet made up his mind about what to think of the Pevensies.

Finally, it was their last evening at Cair Paravel. The sun was slowly disappearing behind the Eastern Ocean in a golden light. After a very formal diner, Harry went back to his room, watching the shades of pink and orange melting into the sky through the balcony. He could smell the salt and the sand, the wind and the dusk. Everything had perfume in Narnia. After these two days, Harry was proud to say he could now hold a sword against Edmund for more than three seconds in a fair duel.

There was a knock on his door.

“Come in!”

Hermione pushed the door and joined him on the balcony. Each room of this castle seemed to have at least one balcony or stairs toward a terrace or a garden.

“Hey,” She had a smile printed on her face. He had not seen her so happy in a very long time. Coming to Narnia seemed a good choice at this point.

“I didn’t see you much these past few days,” she said with a grin.

“You can speak!” He laughed. “You didn’t leave the library much.”

“I was talking with Susan about her siblings. Their story is amazing!”

Harry chuckled.

“You spent _a lot_ of time with Susan, didn’t you?” he remarked.

“And you with Edmund. But do I highlight this every time?” she retorted dryly.

“Yes, yes, you do, Hermione!” smirked Harry.

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Susan is great, okay? It’s not all the time that I can meet someone who is bright and clever.”

“Well, first, I’m a bit offended,” said lightly Harry. “And two, I just wanted to tell you that you looked happy. I’m happy for you.”

“Don’t say things like this, it looks like I’m going to marry her or something,” groaned Hermione.

“I only meant that you were smiling, but okay,” giggled Harry. “I guess this tells me what I wanted to know, thank you.”

Hermione blushed and mumbled something under her breath. She kicked Harry in the ribs, and he tickled her in return. Now, the sun had completely disappeared behind the ocean. The last glimmers were fading away, and the first stars were appearing in the dark blue sky.

“So, you said you talked to Susan...” said Harry.

“Yes, I did. A lot actually. No, don’t you dare, Harry Potter, to make another joke or to imply anything absurd again or I’m going to kick you You-Now-Where!’ she warned him.

Harry smirked and said, “I could ask the same from you for now on.”

Hermione groaned, rolled her eyes, and tried to kick him again.

“So, I was telling you that the story of these Pevensies is incredible,” she said. “I already suspected it, but Susan confirmed. They are from London, in the 1940s, during the Blitz, they were sent away to the countryside, like thousands of other kids. And they discovered a wardrobe which was a pathway between Narnia and their world.”

“They are from the same world than us, then. Just, in our past,” said Harry with amazement.

“Maybe yes, maybe not,” she answered. “There is no way to know if it’s the same time stream. Susan was so happy to learn the war had ended in the future.”

“She remembers better than Edmund does,” remarked Harry.

“Yes, but she was older at the time. And maybe she wants to remember more.”

“Well between Narnia and London during World War Two, me too I’d prefer to focus on my memories of Narnia.”

Hermione nodded.

“For sure.”

At dawn, the small group was getting ready in the stables of the castle. Draco was already complaining about having to ride a living animal, and Harry asked him sarcastically if he preferred to ride a dead one, which ended up in a morning quarrel – not an unusual situation for any of them. Despite appearances, Harry and Draco got along quite well – or at least more than they did before. They stopped trying to kill each other some time ago when they both established it would be a loss of time and energy.

Edmund was saddling his horse himself carefully and was explaining to Harry and Luna how to do it. Lucy joined them, in riding outfit and a large sword on her side. She gave a large smile to Luna before getting her horse ready. Edmund discreetly told Harry they preferred to saddle their horse themselves, contrary to Peter and Susan.

Two centaurs from the Royal Guard were coming with them, Dana and her brother Orion. Harry was quite surprised to notice the horse could speak as well – as were all the other witches and wizards, which make Lucy and Edmund laughed.

Peter entered the stables at that moment.

“I see you are ready to go,” he said.

When he saw Lucy, he sighed.

“I thought I already told you it was not a good idea to join the expedition,” he said to her. “It is dangerous.”

The young woman groaned and faced him with a stern face.

“We’re not going through this again, are we?” she sighed. “I am the best swordswoman in Narnia. I have beat you several times in training. You don’t need to babysit me like this. I am an asset to this mission and in no more danger than Edmund.”

“You are too young, Lucy!” scolded Peter. “I don’t want you to get hurt! It’s my job as an older brother to protect you.”

“And at my age, you went dangerous missions several times already. Don’t hide your misogyny behind your concern, Peter, it shows. And I’m going to be alright.”

She turned away and finished to saddle her horse. Hermione and Luna chuckled discreetly. She was brilliant. Peter gave up and went toward Edmund instead.

“And you,” he told him, “for God’s sake, try to be careful and responsible for once, you are supposed to be a king and a knight, not a kid with a sword in the playground.”

Edmund’s face became red, and he clenched his fist. Harry was surprised by the harshness of his tone. Suddenly, he didn’t like Peter much.

“Don’t you start now to play mister High King the Magnificent!” barked Edmund.

Fortunately, a messenger arrived and interrupted the row that was building up between the two brothers. He told Peter he was expected in the Council Chamber by Rios – their councilor – and he left them after wishing them good luck.

Susan also passed by to say proper goodbye and good luck to her siblings and to their guest – and to Hermione.

On their horses, a guard in front and behind them, the expedition left Cair Paravel by the main gate, under the worrying looks of Susan and Peter, and they took the direction of the western woods.

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear what you thought of this chapter if you want to leave a comment:)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back!
> 
> content warning for this chapter: depiction of violence, death, plague

Narnia was a world of wonder but not of roads. A great number of trails ran all across the kingdom, but Narnians did not travel much. It was perfect to ride horses all day maybe, but only the two guards and the Pevensies knew where they were going through this wilderness.

They rode north-west, crossed the valley, followed the Great River toward the western woods. If Cair Paravel looked like a castle right out of a fairy tale, the rest of Narnian’s ground were the Garden of Eden. Woods and meadows covered the majority of the kingdom.

They trotted in the meadows, and they passed to a walking pace in the woods. The first day of travel, everyone was almost in a good mood, amazed by the wilderness of Narnia and the variety of landscapes around them. Behind them, they could still see the shape of Cair Paravel on the horizon.

Light-hearted discussions were spreading between the travellers. About Narnian wilderness and life, and anecdotes of Edmund’s bad temper told by Lucy. She was entertaining the expedition from Cair Paravel to the western woods. And they almost forget the severity of their mission.

When they were crossing a glen from one hill to another, Harry had some issue with his horse. He couldn’t control it at all and kept pulling too hard on the reins. To a point where he almost fell from the saddle as his horse slipped and kept himself standing by biting on Draco’s saddle in front of him. A couple of swears came out of Harry’s mouth and Draco screamed with agony.

“Potty, you are responsible for my death, do you hear me? I’m going to go back to haunt your scarred ass!” he growled as they reach the bottom of the glen – still on their horses.

Edmund and Lucy looked shocked with a stunned face and stared at Hermione, who was laughing. Blaise noticed and whispered to them, “Don’t worry, they stopped trying to kill each other’s a long time ago.”

Lucy and Edmund exchanged a glance, and Lucy asked, “They wanted to kill each other?”. Blaise and Hermione only laughed.

When Harry was steady again on his saddle he muttered, “I didn’t even touch you, you wanker.”

“I heard that,” squealed Draco in front of him.

And they went on deeper into Narnia’s wilderness. After a wood and several glens, they reached a vast stretch of meadows. Small groups had formed as they were not forced to ride behind one another anymore. Luna and Lucy were having what seemed a pleasant conversation as no one earwigged on them. They all were more focused on Harry and Draco squabbling again about how bad Harry was at riding a horse. And he was really terrible.

“Don't even try to tell me you know how to ride a horse, Potter, you already tried to kill me twice today!” said Draco with a snort.

“It was an accident! It only happened twice. I'm not _that_ bad!” answered Harry.

Draco snorted.

“You definitely are.”

The green meadows they crossed were covered in colourful dots of wildflowers. When she saw it, Luna’s face brightened suddenly to this sight.

“Oh, dear Merlin!” she cheered, “There are also poppies in Narnia!”

They all smiled at the sound of her honest joy. Lucy bent over her horse to pick a poppy and trotted to Luna to put the flower behind her ear with a wink. Luna blushed and smiled widely.

“You look just like a poppy, pretty in the sun,” said simply Lucy.

Seeing Lucy flirting with Luna lightened the mood. She was not exactly discreet at this. Neither really good. It had made Hermione and Harry giggled several times already. And even Edmund seemed amused.

Later that day, after an extensive conversation between Blaise and Hermione on some absurd consideration of the gravity and weather of other dimensions that annoyed everyone, Lucy started again to share stories about how she had beaten her brothers in training on many occasions.

“And that time,” she told them, “Edmund was so arrogant about being the best swordsman in Narnia, he kept telling it to everyone, it was so embarrassing honestly. And I wanted to show him my skills. He was so sure of himself, he didn’t counter correctly my hits, he ended up having to step back and he fell into the duck pond! In front of his fencing master! It was amazing!”

Everyone was laughing, even Edmund who tried to defend himself.

“Don’t exaggerate, Lu! I was not bragging that much, and you were only twelve!”

“Okay, then, when was the last time you told anyone you were the best swordsman in Narnia?” she mocked.

Edmund turned red when Harry answered for him, “Yesterday and the day before, a good dozen time, I think!”

“It doesn’t count! We just met!” he protested.

“Oh, so you were trying to impress him?” asked Lucy with a knowing grin.

“Whatever,” groaned Edmund of embarrassment and he start sulking just behind the first guard who opened the path.

When they crossed the first woods, the witches and wizards saw for the first time how alive were the woods themselves in Narnia. The trees were smiling and bowing on their path. Spirits of nymphs were following them in a cloud of petals and waving at them.

They set camp for the night nearby a river, in a clearing. There will be turn of surveillance during the night, the first shift being for Edmund and Orion, the guard. Narnia was a peaceful world now, under the reign of the Pevensies. The only shadow to this picture was the dark creatures.

“I can’t believe I could have died without seeing this world,” muttered Harry under his blanket.

Next to him, Lucy opened her eyes and looked at him.

“The wizarding world is very different from Narnia?” she asked.

“Oh yes… We are not exactly a world, more like a separated society of witches and wizards in the United Kingdom, and everywhere in the world. So, my world is basically the Great Britain with magic. Nothing like Narnia.”

“Magic can change a lot of things. London was not the most pleasant city I can remember...” sighed Lucy.

“Magic makes a lot of things different, easier sometimes, more beautiful. When I was a kid, as I was discovering I was a wizard, magic was so beautiful, so brilliant. But now, I don’t know if the wizarding world is a good place to be in.”

“But now, the war had ended, you won.’ remarked Lucy. ‘Won’t things change and get better?”

Harry had a grim smile on his face, he looked sadder than earlier.

“I don’t know if it’s possible,” he answered under his breath. “I don’t know if I can expect it of them… Most people didn’t seem to care if Voldemort was in power or not as long as they were safe. They didn’t care if he hurt, hunted and murdered others.”

“Basic human instinct,” mumbled Lucy. She was still staring at Harry. Even in the darkness of the night, she could see his distant glaze and the sorrow on his face. “It’s the opposite of the Chivalry’s Code, here in Narnia. A Narnian’s knight protects others before himself. But to do this, one needs a lot of abnegation.”

“Or a big old saviour complex,” added sarcastically Harry.

Lucy snorted.

“Like when you jumped through the storm to save my brother? Yes, he told me about it, and it was stupid.”

A more genuine grin appeared on Harry’s face.

“Not stupid. It was what I had to do,” corrected Harry.

They continued their journey at dawn. The second day was longer and harder than the first. The exhaustion was rising in the small group. Their muscles were sore after two days in a row of riding. And the witches and wizards were getting caught up by their lack of rest of the past few months. Harry’s shoulders were rigid and his head down. Hermione looked sleep deprived as well as Draco and Blaise. Sleeping out in the open did not do them a lot of good. Bad memories. Luna looked more alert than usual all day long.

These last few days at Cair Paravel had given Harry the illusion that he could forget the war in this new world. However, now that he was on the back of a horse since dawn, and as his tiredness grew stronger, he could not stop himself from thinking anymore. It was something he had become really good at. The only reason he stayed almost sane through the war was his ability to disconnect from reality, to block his thoughts, to distract himself. It was an old trick he mastered during his childhood at the Dursley's.

But when he was tired, when his mind could not be stopped from working, it all came back like a tornado, destroying him from the inside. He clenched his jaws as he saw again the corpses of Sirius and Remus, fallen next to one another. When he remembered the torture of his friends, the mass grave of muggles and muggles-born they found in Cornwall, and another one in Manchester, in Leeds, and so many more. In an attempt to stop his hands from shaking, he clutched them around the reins.

The only thing he could do was to fix a point in front of him – Edmund’s back – and wait. His own incapability to calm himself annoyed him even more. He felt so vulnerable. And being vulnerable was the same as being dead.

Hermione noticed Harry’s distress in front of her. Every time, it killed her bit by bit to see him like this. There was not much to be done. He was blaming himself; she knew it. And no matter the number of times she told him it has nothing to do with him, he pushed her away. What could she do more? She was haunted by her own memories which were not any better than Harry’s. She knew how hard it was do deal with those.

As they were entering the western woods, they slowed down their horse and became more alert. Luna looked really uncomfortable now. She was wriggling on her saddle, looking at the woods with wide eyes, which was worrying Harry and Hermione. The woods were silent, the only noise were their own breathing and the steps of their horse. The trees were not moving anymore toward them. They stood still, as if they were observing them. Even the smells were weaker here. The living woods of Narnia seemed to have become dull and bleak.

“What do you feel, Luna?” asked Hermione with a frown.

“The rhythm of the magic is changing. We are getting toward something unfamiliar. I can’t tell you what it is… I’m sorry. It’s like the chants of Narnia are getting different here.”

Hermione and Harry made a face. It was not so good. Luna had never been wrong before when it came to magic variations. She was able to feel deatheaters nests and to feel them getting closer. She saved their life so many times.

“What do you mean?” asked Lucy with a frown. “Is there a danger nearby?”

“In Cair Paravel, and all along Narnia, the magic was feeling like a nice breeze,” explained Luna with a stern face. “But here, it feels like an icy gale.”

“So, we are getting closer to something? Good to know,” said Edmund. “Everybody, stay alert, the village we are heading for is in a dozen miles.”

They all nodded. Harry was alert, and at least now he could stop himself from thinking by being focussed. He had his wand in one hand as he held the reins in the other. The silence of the woods was awful. Nothing seemed to be alive around them.

After another hour, they reached the village where the last attack happened less than a week ago. It has been the home of dwarfs and satyrs mostly. Now it was mostly ruins and ashes of burnt houses in a clearing. There could have been not more than half a dozen houses. A barn was still standing, and survivors were gathered inside. A satyr got out very cautiously at the sound of the horses. His eyes widened at the sight of the king and queen and their acolytes. The door opened completely, and he went toward them limping. He almost threw himself to the ground at the feet of Edmund’s horse.

“Your highnesses,” he sobbed, “We… we were attacked by _it_.”

Edmund sighed and got down of his mount.

“Get to your feet,” he said softly, “We are here to stop these attacks from happening.”

The satyr got up slowly with his bad leg. Lucy got down of her horse as well and reached to him.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Esir, your highness.”

“Were you injured, Esir?”

“Yes, during the attack, I was trying to stop them from hurting my brother, but I failed.”

“You did the best you could, I’m sure,” said Lucy. “We are here to understand what these creatures are and how we can stop them. Would you and the other survivors help us?”

“Off course, your highness! Off course. This disaster can’t happen somewhere else, not again.”

All the members of the royal expedition got down from their horses and set camp at the edge of the clearing. Esir guided Lucy inside the barn to explain to the remaining survivors what was happening. They all seemed relieved to the point of crying. Harry’s gut clenched at the sight of so many injured and sick people in such a small place. The worst was the smell of rotting flesh.

After a quick count, half of the survivors were suffering from the plague, but it had not spread to any new people since the day of the attack.

“It means only the creatures can infect people. If it were contagious, more people would be sick, especially the one who are already hurt or burnt,” stated Hermione.

“The question is still how they infect people,” added Edmund.

They divided into different missions. Hermione and Lucy were taking sample of dirt, ashes from the village and blood from the sick. Hermione’s hopes were too be able to identify something with a couple of detection spells and even maybe potion – just basic chemistry – back at Cair Paravel. There could be a trace of these creatures, or of where they came from.

Luna was circling around the village to try to understand this variation in the magic, and because she had that nasty tendency to wander around a bit too much without caution, Draco and Blaise were charged to follow her like their own shadow. At the order, they both grunted and protested, but two people were needed to follow Luna, she was easy to lose. Less than two minutes after they left the village, the others could already hear a couple of swears from Draco and chuckles from Luna.

In the meantime, Edmund and Harry were questioning the villagers to gather the maximum of information about these creatures. They were in the barn, next to the straw mattress of the head of the village. He had been heavily burnt during the attack.

“Could you, please, explain us how the attacked happened?” asked Edmund, “Every information might help us to understand these creatures.”

The Narnian coughed violently before answering.

“Sure, your highness,” he breathed harshly. “It was getting dark outside. It had been a very warm day. The kids were calling back the goats.” he coughed again. “Since other villages had been attacked, we were being careful. But they appeared from nowhere. I know these woods; I was born there. There are no such thing as dark living shadows in Narnia.” He moaned in pain and held his arm for a moment. Makeshift bandages were covering most of his body. They all knew he would not survive this.

“They started to ignite the houses to force us to get out. A kid told me he saw the fire started by itself. I did not know how they did it. Then, with their sword – or whatever it was – they started to cut people open all around. It was impossible to stay out of their way. They were everywhere. And then, when almost all the village was dead, they suddenly left. Just disappeared. No one was standing. They maybe thought we were all dead.”

“Indeed,” agreed Edmund with a stern face. “In most of the attacked, the few people who survived were out of sight of the creatures.”

“How many of them were here that night?” asked Harry.

“Many. Too many,” sobbed the man. “More than us.”

“What do they look like?”

The Narnian frowned and coughed.

“Big, enormous. Tall as minotaurs. They were not made of flesh, but of shadow, but that kept moving. They had what looked like swords, also made of shadows, but it hurt. It cut people in half. It’s all so very blur now. It was a nightmare.”

He had difficulties to breathe now, so Edmund and Harry let him rest. They both were worried as they walk through the barn. A younger Narnian joined them.

“Your highness, I heard you found help at the edge of the world, does this mean we can defeat these creatures?” he said with hope in his voice.

“I certainly hope so, and I will do everything in my power to protect Narnia for good from these creatures,” answered Edmund.

“Thank you, your highness,” he bowed. “I worry for my sister, she lives across the woods, and the attacks are getting closer to her.”

“New attacks happened after your village’s?” Harry asked.

“Yes, two miles west from here, at a burrow.”

“Thank you,” said Edmund before getting out if the barn, Harry on his steps.

“Other attacks? You knew about them?” asked Harry.

Edmund sighed heavily.

“No, it must have happened after we left Cair Paravel. We will have a look tomorrow just in case,” ordered Edmund.

They set their camp for the night a mile to the south of the village, after leaving the two royal guards, Dina and Orion, there to protect the villagers in case another attack happened – even if so far, no village have been strike twice in a row.

Hermione and Luna were quickly casting protection spells around the camp they would need to renew every day. Luna hadn’t had any luck with the variation she had felt. The same variation surrounded the whole village and seemed to spread to the whole woods.

The next day, Harry and Edmund got ready to go inspecting the close area that had been attacked. And also, maybe mapping the attacks which took place in the area. The others stayed at the village to help the villagers to rebuild and to heal the injured.

They got on their horses and walked away from the camp in silence. Edmund seemed to know very well these woods. He told Harry he used to go hunting there with his siblings. According to him, they use to be full of life and of joy. It was hard to believe now.

The Burrow where the last attack occurred were not very far from the camp. When they arrived, they saw three little graves next to a tree and the closed door of the burrow. They were still traces of the attack, some burnt trees. It was a miracle the whole woods did not burnt.

They decided to ride along the border to find areas of older attacks.

‘Maybe mapping the attacks could help us.’ said Edmund.

Well. They were hoping it would help us. So far, they had no clue, no leads. They had nothing that could help them to understand what these creatures were and where they came from. Edmund seemed more and more frustrated. He did not say a word while they were following the border. It was nothing more than a wall of trees and of cliffs which stopped anyone to go farther north. Harry could have believed it was only a natural obstacle, that on the other side, another valley, other woods would still belong to the kingdom. But they were no such things. No one could cross these cliffs, the world of Narnia just stopped there for good.

“How is this even possible?” wondered Harry under his breath.

They found no breach in the border, no magic portal, no indication of crossing. Nothing. It was just deadly silent woods all around them.

“The last time I saw those woods so bleak and silent, it was before our reign,” said suddenly Edmund with a lower voice. “An evil witch, the White Witch, was using terror and violence to reign on Narnia.”

Harry watched his face with attention. The young king was tense.

“The woods and the kingdom react to their rulers?” he asked.

“Don’t even suggest we could be the responsible for this!” barked abruptly Edmund.

Harry flinched. It was the same voice he used against his brother. Harry sighed deeply.

“I was not accusing you,” he said.

They stayed silent for a while after that. For the short time they have known each other, Harry had never seen Edmund so tense, and so angry. But after all, he had not known him for long. Maybe he had been wrong about the man. Harry’s face darkened as he followed him.

They reached a smaller clearing where another burrow seemed to have been attacked at least a month ago. This time, there were five graves. They got down from their horses and had a look around. Edmund kicked into a bush with rage and fell down against a tree.

“Why? For god sake, why?” he groaned. “What a nightmare!”

Harry got closer to him, not sure what to do. He needed to calm himself, but Harry was the first to know that sometimes it was better to be left alone in moment like this. And Merlin knows, Harry had many of these moments.

“Why are people dying under our watch?” whispered Edmund. “Why can’t we do anything about this?”

Harry sat next to him.

“Sometimes things happen, and we can do nothing to stop them. What had happened is already done. What we can do is to fight for the future, for what will happen.” he said calmly.

“How can you know anything about all of this? About guilt and responsibility?!” snorted Edmund without looking at him.

“If I had not been captured by Voldemort, he would not have used my blood to come back to life, and there wouldn’t be mass graves of muggles, muggles-born and half-bloods all across Great Britain,” answered Harry dryly.

Edmund flinched and looked up to him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said this,” he apologised. “I just… I don’t handle all this very well. Before seeing it, it was different. But if I hadn’t taken two fucking months to go back, maybe these people wouldn't have died.”

Harry snorted. “You sure don’t handle it well. But you are not responsible for the delay of crossing dimensions. It’s already a good thing we didn’t arrived centuries too late.”

They sat there for a moment before getting up. Edmund seemed calmer, more himself. Before climbing back on his horse, he confessed to Harry, “If Narnia disappeared, I don’t know if I could be able to survive it.”

“I thought that too about the wizarding world, and now I’m running from it,” sighed Harry.

“I have nothing out of Narnia!” blurted Edmund. “Nothing, I never had. All I have are my siblings and Narnia.”

He still looked tense. He was frantically rubbing his hands together.

“I don’t remember much of what happened before Narnia, but I know it was not good. I was not happy, I was in pain.”

He swallowed hard and was looking away. He was too proud to let Harry see him too much like this.

“School was awful,” he explained. “Sometimes I have nightmares about it even if I don’t know exactly what happened there. And my father was in danger. At the war.”

He took the reins in his hands.

“I think this is my only regret about leaving. Not knowing if my father survived. But it’s maybe better if I don’t know.”

Edmund spurred on his horse and left the clearing, Harry on his heels. The atmosphere was less heavy than before. They turned in this area of the woods for a little while before heading back to the camp before dusk. After his confession, Edmund had not said much. Speaking so openly about his fears was not a habit of his. Usually, when he was on a bad mood, he said nothing and was his most unpleasant self toward anyone who had the bad luck to cross his path. But Harry seemed trustworthy, honest too, and he was not pretending to be happy when he was not.

At camp, the others were already preparing dinner and casting the defensive spells. Edmund went directly to observe them with a curious stare, ignoring his sister enquiry about his mood.

Before leaving the village, the witches had cast protective spells around the village. They were getting ready to head back to Cair Paravel the next day at dawn. They did not have much on these creatures, but they could not stay in open ground for too long.

After a frugal diner of dry meat and berries, they all went to sleep. Harry and Edmund decided to take the first surveillance shift around the camp. Edmund was still feeling guilty about his behaviour earlier. He had to make up to Harry.

As they left the camp, Luna and Lucy were talking softly in front of the fire. The two of them were really fond of each other. Luna was telling stories about Hogwarts to Lucy who was laughing. The others were sleeping – or trying too – under heavy blankets. Blaise and Draco were sharing one. No one really talked about it, but all of them sort of knew the both of them were really close, more than friends. It was obvious and always has been. They did not even need to bring the news to anyone.

Harry and Edmund were walking silently in the woods, wand, and sword in hand, ready to be used if needed. Despite the darkness, Edmund knew where he was going. After turning twice in silent around the camp, they decided to wander a bit farther away.

Harry noticed that Edmund was not as tense as before, but he was still worried. They reached a cluster of colossal rocks in the middle of the forest. Edmund smirked and put away his sword to start climbing it without a word. Harry rolled his eyes and followed him.

“You could at least explain where we’re going, you know.”

A grunt answered him as Edmund lifted himself up the top of the rocks. It was a small rocky plateau just above the top of the trees from where they could see the sky and all the western woods from above.

A large grim grew on Harry’s face.

“So, are you trying to make it up for today?” he asked, half kidding.

“I am”, answered Edmund very seriously. “I am sorry, Harry, I was not of pleasant company today.”

“You are worried and mad, I don’t blame you.”

“You should! You are here to help, and me, I treat you like garbage! Peter was right, I’m always just an ungrateful kid, I always was.”

Harry sat on a rock and looked at the stars, he could see several constellations he had never seen before. He pulled Edmund by the arm to make him sat next to him. Their gazes were following the sea of trees around them blown a gentle wind.

“You are making it up by bringing me here,” said Harry softly.

Edmund smiled a little and ran his hand through his dark hair.

“Narnia saved me,” he tried to explain. “I was not happy as a kid, in the middle of my siblings. I was always too old or too young for everything. Or too selfish for thinking of myself, or stupid if I didn’t. Here I could be more free to be someone without Peter, my parents, my professors telling me if I could or not. Even if Peter still does it sometimes.”

Harry nodded a little while listening to him carefully.

“It was very different for me,” said Harry. “A bit similar but also different. I grew up with my aunt and uncle, not in the wizarding world. I didn’t even know I was a wizard before I turned eleven. They treated me like pure garbage. So being a wizard and being able to escape was a blessing.”

Harry made a short break, lost in his memories of his first year.

“But there was a prophecy,” he continued. “And people were expecting me to fulfil it. I was the one and only who could defeat Voldemort and I thought I was supposed to die doing it, my first mentor thought this too and sent me to death many times.”

“But you survived,” said Edmund.

“I did, more or less. What seemed at first a blessing was a curse. My life in the wizarding world had become even worse than my muggle life – and the bar was already high.”

“Narnia could save you too,” whispered Edmund.

Harry sighed.

_“If_ I can be saved.”

Edmund frowned. He dropped his hand on Harry’s knee and squeezed it.

“You can!” he assured him. “If I was, you can too. And god knows I didn’t deserve it.”

“How could a ten-years-old not deserve it?” asked Harry.

“I made a mistake. I betrayed my siblings and Narnia,” he said with sorrow in his voice.

“What happened?” asked Harry.

Edmund breathed deeply before answering.

“When Lucy first went to Narnia, I didn’t believe her. And then, when I went there the first time, I meet the White Witch. I did not know her, and I betrayed Lucy by giving away her friend to her. And when I went back to Narnia with the others, I was so frustrated to not be acknowledged by them, to be pushed away like a disturbance, I ran toward the Witch and got myself captured. I thought that she would see me for the real me. I believed her lies and I betrayed my siblings.”

Harry frowned.

“But, did you knew she was evil when you first met her?” he asked.

“No, but I should have.”

“No. You were ten, from a different world, and I’m pretty sure you had no idea of Narnia’s geopolitical conflict, nor the maturity to understand its extent. Don’t blame yourself too much for something you could not control,” said Harry.

“Isn’t the advice you should apply to yourself?” asked Edmund in response.

Harry winced and stopped breathing for a second.

“It was different,” he said.

“How so?” asked Edmund.

They both sighed and looked up to the sky. They stayed silent for a moment.

“My siblings,” whispered Edmund. “It took them a long time to fully trust me after this. They didn’t say it, but I could feel it. Especially Peter. And sometimes I don’t even think he had forgiven me, even today.”

“Your brother can be an ass,” said dryly Harry. “He is full of himself, he makes me think of Malfoy but with a crown. Except maybe Malfoy got a bit better now.”

Edmund smirked.

“Good to know we are on the same page,” he joked.

Harry grinned. They had been on these rocks for a long time, and it felt nice. Edmund was of pleasant company, even with his bad temper and his tendency to self-loathe. It was maybe why he was such a good knight.

Suddenly, something changed in the night. Harry startled and looked around. The wind had stopped in a very not natural manner. Edmund felt it too and was examining their surroundings.

“There!” groaned Harry, pointing in the direction of the village.

Smoke and flames.

“Fuck,” swore Edmund. “They are back.”

“We have to help them.”

Edmund was already jumping down the plateau and running toward the village, sword in hand. He showed no sign to want to warn their companions to call for back-up. For once, Harry was the cautious one, he thought with a snort. Before running after Edmund, he sent a patronus back to the camp.

Edmund was not far in front of him and he had no trouble to catch up with him. They burst onto the clearing at the same time to witness a vision from hell. The barn was burning as well as the other houses their companions had rebuilt. The villagers were being chased by dark figures.

For the first time, Harry saw them. The dark creatures. And he had never seen anything like it. They were at least two meters tall, dark like a void, the shadows blazing like a wildfire. They looked like shadows of warriors, weirdly anthropomorphic.

Edmund threw himself into the battle to save a young Narnian who was about to be crashed by the creatures. He was swirling his sword around him with agility. Nothing seemed to destroy these creatures, except a blow in their head.

Harry rushed too, wand in hand, into the mess. He did not know what spell would be useful, so he tried a few. Experliarmus was enough to force the creature to step back. The death spell did not seem to have any effect on them. Only with a Bombarda maxima, he succeeded to blow up several creatures. So, Bombarda Maxima it will be.

The air was unbreathable, the smokes from the fires were infesting the whole clearing. In the darkness of night, the flames cast a horrific light on the battle. Harry was trying to destroy the more creatures he could, but they were everywhere. The explosion of the creature after he struck them with his spell were more powerful than it was supposed to be. Everything seemed too strong, too violent. He was mostly stopping creatures from killing the villagers, but it seemed pointless, they were coming back. The battle would never stop.

Harry did not lose sight of Edmund. More than once, they ended up back against back in the middle of the creatures.

“They are everywhere!” yelled Edmund.

Harry saw from the corner of his eyes a creature slamming a satyr who screamed with pain. He reacted quickly and blew up the creature before it could raise their weapon and strike the satyr.

“Run to the woods, south!” shouted Harry to the satyr.

He could see the Narnian running as fast as he could and disappearing behind the line of trees. With a bit of luck, this one will survive. Harry hoped he was not doing this in vain. He was not strong enough, Edmund was not strong enough, they were outnumbered.

“Harry, look out!” yelled Edmund.

Harry dodged away from a creature’s blade behind him. Before he could turn back and defend himself, he tripped on the corpse of a villager and fell to the ground. He just held his breath, waiting to be crushed by the creature above him. He has been close to death many times, but maybe not this close. This one was the one. He would not find death by Voldemort’s hand after all. If he cast a Bombarda now, he would be blown away too. There were no escapes.

He saw the creature raising its sword, ready to slice him in half. He clenched his fist. But the hit never came. A blade struck the creature’s head, and it disappeared in a hissing sound. They were no more creature above him but a sweaty and covered in ashes Edmund. He was holding out his hand to Harry. When he got back on his feet, before rushing back into the battle, Edmund whispered, “We’re even now.”

They were still so many creatures, so many flames and so few survivors. They fought even more, to save those who still could be saved. Once again back against back, Harry heard Edmund talking to him.

“Your technique is pretty effective, I like it. Could you please blow up this one? It’s getting on my nerve.”

Harry smirked and cast a Bombarda Maxima against the creature Edmund was fighting, which exploded like a firework. Another creature appeared right in front of him and he just had the time to throw an instinctive Expeliarmus to push it away. He maintained his spell longer than before, not sure how fast it would jump back at him when he will lower his defence. The magic he was pushing into this spell was even more colossal than usual, as if he was canalizing the magic in the woods around him. After several seconds, he felt drops of sweat forming on his forehead, he didn’t know how much longer he could last.

The creature was reacting at the spell in a way he had not seen in a very long time. A blue magnetic arc was forming between his wand and the creature, almost as massive as both of them. He knew that now he could not stop his spell anymore or everything would blow up to his face. He was doomed and exhausted.

Suddenly, another spell hit the creature who exploded.

“Harry,” he heard coming from the woods. Hermione was there, wand in hand, with their other companions behind her. The back-up was there. He started to breathe again. They were saved.

Quickly, the witches and wizards pushed back the creatures and to put out the fire, while Lucy and the guards were slaying some creatures. After a moment, the creature stopped from appearing and the clearing was once again safe for those who remained alive.

While looking around for survivors, Harry could not stop thinking about the creature, and the magnetic arc they created by fighting against one another. He had seen it before, when he was fighting Voldemort. Was it an overflow of power? It was clearly the more plausible explanation. But it was bothering him.

They had gathered the remaining villagers and were preparing to transport them to the closest village. Not many had survived the fire and the creatures. When Harry was helping a Narnian to walk toward their camp, he saw in front of him a satyr falling and coughing violently blood. It was the plague. Hermione rushed to help the Narnian. In the pale light of their camp, Harry recognised the satyr. It was him he saved from a creature. It was him who was touched by it.

A feeling of realization built up in his stomach. Discreetly, he came toward Hermione and Edmund who were exchanging at the edge of the camp.

“I think I know how the plague infects people,” he said.

Both Edmund and Hermione looked at him with expectation.

“How?” asked Edmund.

“The Narnian who just felt sick. I saw him being touched by a creature.”

“Oh dear Merlin, I should have thought of it!” whispered Hermione. “Touching. It’s logical.”

Edmund suddenly looked extremely worried and started to pat both of Harry’s arms at the same time.

“Were you touched?” he asked with panic. “When the creature was above you, did it touch you?”

Harry shook his head in negation and assured himself that Edmund had not been himself infected. The young king did not let him go out of his sight for the rest of the mission.

After escorting the remaining villagers for five miles north to another village, with royal order to be taken care of, they headed back toward Cair Paravel. Their mission was a terrible failure. They were not closer to understand these dark creatures, nor to save Narnia from them.

The journey back was dead silent.

* * *

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the previous chapter. I'll try to publish smaller chapters as from now, tell me if you prefer it this way.

The journey back was awful for so many reasons. First, it was raining like hell. Big summer storms were breaking out all over Narnia. Two, their mission had been a terrible failure. They had no clue, not much to share. Of course, now they knew how the plague was spreading, but did it matter when they could not cure it? And they had no idea why the creatures have attacked twice the same village for the first time since the beginning of the attacks.

More questions were raised than answers provided. And it was frustrating for everyone. Edmund had no desire to face Peter, nor the court. No one was really talking during the long way back to Cair Paravel.

When they arrived at the castle, it was still raining. It was under the pouring water that the members of the expedition arrived at the stables. And after a meeting with the two other king and queen in the Council Chamber that ended again in a quarrel, they all retired to their rooms.

Peter and Susan seemed desperate by the lack of progress they made. The atmosphere between the siblings was heavily tense. Just as they arrived at the castle, a griffon just brought the news of a new attack in the southern border to Peter. It did not help to ease everyone's feelings.

Later that day, Peter was still brooding and pacing in the great court at the centre of the castle. He was not over the fact that another attack happened. He was trying to calm himself before going back to the Council Chamber. Edmund, who oversaw the court organization on that day, went toward him to announced that the ceremonial dinner was officially called off out of respect for the new victims. As soon as he delivered his news to his brother, Edmund turned back. He did not want to have a fight – again – with Peter. He just wanted to train to empty his head. He had almost left when he heard Peter talking behind him.

"I knew I should I've gone there myself," heavily sighed the High King.

Edmund stopped and turned slowly to face his brother.

"It wouldn't have change much what happened," said Edmund.

"I'm sure things could have been done differently. I am the one that should have gone there."

"What are you insinuating here, Peter?" said Edmund, losing his calm. "You think I can't do my duty? That I can't protect Narnia as much as you?"

Peter shook his head.

"Apparently, no, you can't. This mission was a complete failure."

Edmund stared stunned at his brother.

"And you believe it is my fault? You were not there, you never fought these creatures even once! How can you dare accusing me of incompetence?" He barked.

Edmund was angry. He was feeling the rage filling his lungs, and he had to clench his jaws to avoid saying something he will regret. How could Peter dare to blame him?

"It's not the first time you messed up, Edmund, don't play innocent with me!" attacked Peter dryly.

"I don't 'mess up', sometimes I make mistakes, or I can be imprudent, but I never mess up!" yelled Edmund with rage. "So that's how you see me? Great. No wonder why you were side-lining me."

"I am a king, Edmund, I have to think of my people first, and you put them in danger. You left for two bloody months!"

"And what I am then? A goat? A Clown? Why do you think there are four thrones in this castle, surprise, it's not for your big arrogant ass!" barked Edmund. "And you know very well that travelling between dimensions takes time, I was not on some holidays, my crew fucking died there! I almost died too if it was not for Harry."

"Risking your life is not an excuse to pretend you didn't fail!" snorted Peter.

A weigh crushed Edmund's heart. He jumped toward his brother to hold him by the collar.

"You little bitch," growled Edmund. "Who do you think you are? How can you think you're better than me?"

Peter's eyes narrowed, and he tried to push Edmund away from him with a head kick on his nose. Edmund did not move, accusing the shock and he quickly punched Peter on the nose in response, throwing him to the ground. Peter stood up almost immediately, ready to kick Edmund back.

Harry and Lucy had been waiting for Edmund to come back to start some sword training in the gardens. He had left a while ago and as he did not seem to be coming back anytime soon, they came to check on him. They went to the central court and there they found him, fighting on the ground with Peter. After a common irritated sigh, they rushed to separate them.

Harry held Edmund by the shoulder to stop him from kicking his brother in the butt as Lucy was forcing Peter to stay still and not rush back at breaking Edmund's ribs.

"Stop it! Both of you!" ordered Lucy. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Edmund was wiping his bloody noise with a snort.

"He hit me first," he just said.

"That's not a bloody reason to hit back!" said Lucy.

"It's what I said, you behave like a child," muttered Peter with a snort.

Edmund seemed ready to punch him again if Harry were not holding him by the shoulders.

"You too, shut up!" intimated Lucy. "You hit him first, you should have known better, Peter. You never stop from taunting him and putting him down! You both are two gigantic fools. We shouldn't fight against each other's right now!"

After her reprimand, Lucy made sure Peter went back to his apartments, and Harry stayed with Edmund to take care of his wounds, in his rooms.

"I'm not the worst, you should have seen him," snorted Edmund as Harry was fixing his nose.

"I don't really care about your brother's injury, you know. But I'd prefer if you don't hurt yourself more than necessary," answered Harry.

Edmund grinned slightly and ran a hand through his hair.

"He doesn't trust me," he explained. "He thinks I'm the reason this mission failed."

Harry sighed.

"Your brother is a fool and an ass for not trusting you. But keep in mind that he's angry and afraid for Narnia, and none of you seems to react very well in tense situations."

He smirked after continuing, "If I had such a bad reaction to pressure, I wouldn't have survived very long in the war."

"Well, we don't get war that often in Narnia," sulked Edmund.

"Show me your ribs, I'm pretty sure they're broken," asked Harry.

"Because you can fix them too?"

"No, I can't grow back bones. There's a potion for this, and you should be glad there's not any in Narnia, this stuff is horrible. But I can check if it's serious, and I can reduce the bruising. Now take you shirt off," ordered Harry.

Edmund grinned and took off his top slowly. To be honest, his ribs were hurting like hell. Harry saw the wince on Edmund's face and sighed.

"I knew it."

On Edmund's bare chest, there were large purple bruises that looked a lot like a human fist. Harry got closer and quickly checked his ribs with a quick detection spell, and then reduced the bruises one by one. He was trying not to stare at Edmund. Seeing a half-naked Edmund made him blush of embarrassment, but he tried to hide it the best he could.

"So, all wizards can heal people?" asked Edmund after clearing his throat.

Harry shook his head.

"No, most of the time it's only our healers. But I had to learn some spells during the war. Or more like, Hermione taught me these spells."

After he had finished, Edmund thanked Harry with a wide smile. They both stayed together for a moment, listening to the rattle of the waves. At some point, the door opened slowly, and Hermione came in. When Harry saw her eyebrow rising and her smirk, he remembered that Edmund was still half-naked, and he blushed.

"Hermione, to what do we how the pleasure?" asked Edmund, pretending the awkwardness was inexistent in the room.

She cleared her throat after winking at Harry.

"There is a meeting in the Council Chamber, we are all expected – in decent attire obviously."

Edmund chuckled and Harry blushed, and the two men followed Hermione after Edmund grabbed a shirt.

After a tumultuous meeting and a lot of yelling, they arrived at a fair conclusion: they needed to establish a permanent mission to protect the borders against the creatures and to defend the villages. It was not the best of all decision, but they had nothing more to offer.

They would take a week to prepare this mission, and then left again, with two detachments, one in the north, one in the south. It would be easier to just find a way to defeat once and for all these creatures, they all knew it, they all yelled it at least once. However, so far, it has been a dead end.

The next day, while Peter was choosing and selecting Narnian's knights for the mission – a task he refused to share or to delegate to anyone – the rest of the humans were training in a way or another somewhere in the castle.

Cair Paravel appeared in a different light now that the sky was greyish and stormy, and the ocean was not deep blue but closer to a foaming white. A storm was getting closer and closer. On the horizon, they all could see worryingly dark clouds slowly getting closer and closer as the wind blew stronger and stronger.

Hermione had left the shelter of the library to walk on the old ramparts which surrounded the castle and were now unattended as Narnia was in peace. She had to be careful to not be swept away by the wind as she walked close to the edge. Beneath her, she saw the foam flying and being taken away by the wind like a snowstorm.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Hermione looked behind her and saw Susan joining her with a large smile.

"I really like walking down here," Susan added. "Especially when eastern storms are coming. The view is always breath-taking."

Hermione smiled to the young queen.

"I love it. I've rarely seen an ocean so large," she said.

Susan nodded and laid against the edge of the ramparts next to Hermione. A large gust blew and made their hair flew around. They had to close their eyes to the intensity of the blow and burst into a short laugh. Foam was all around them in the air. Susan suddenly grinned and bent toward Hermione and ran her finger through one of Hermione's lock. Hermione felt her heartbeats getting faster for a second.

"You had foam in your hair," said Susan with a grin before staring at the ocean again.

The wind started to get stronger, and clouds loaded with rainwater began to drop on them. Both women walked back slowly toward the castle.

"Would you be interested in spending time with me?" asked Susan.

Hermione smiled and nodded.

"Sure. I've been dying to ask you to show me how to shoot a bow," she answered.

"Who told you about my bow?" asked Susan with surprise.

Hermione laughed a little.

"Lucy might have told a lot of stories on our way to the borders to cheer up the mood."

"Bloody Lucy," laughed Susan. "Of course, I'd be happy to show you, and even teach you if you want."

The both of them walked their way back to the dry shelter of the castle by a secret passage in the ramparts Susan showed to Hermione. They reached an indoor training and shooting range in a large room. Narrow windows at the top of the walls let a shy light flooding the room. No one was there except a guard and a pageboy who bowed in front of Hermione and Susan.

Susan got her bow and showed her skills to Hermione with a large grin. She hit the centre of the target and Hermione cheered with amazement. Susan laughed a little.

"I'm cheating a bit, I have to confess," she said. "My bow can't ever miss a target. But I can promise you that I'm as talented with regular bows."

Hermione laughed too.

"Magic is not cheating, or I'll be the biggest of all cheater!" she said.

"it's not cheating when it's a part of you, me, it's just a gadget. But it had proven to be very useful at times."

"May I try?" asked Hermione.

Susan grinned and showed her the posture.

"Don't face the target, be on your side, right foot in front. Yes, like this. Now aim at the target. And Shoot!"

The arrow did not leave the bow in a very straight direction but aimed the target at the centre anyway. Hermione cheered for a second and then said, "This is cheating, I shouldn't have hit the target."

"Maybe, but it's the best way to learn how to shoot. And honestly, you did good. A bit of training and you can try with an actual arrow and bow."

Hermione nodded and took another arrow to give it another chance. They spent a major part of their morning at the shooting range. Hermione got better and better at every shot. The two women were engaging in a friendly rivalry to see who would aim best with a random bow. Susan was winning but only because of her amount of training as Hermione seemed to have a natural gift for this activity.

As they were having a break, they went out to breathe some fresh air. The rain had stopped, and the wind was still smelling like wet storm. On a terrace, they sat in front of a pond. It was a garden on a terrace that recalled to Hermione drawings of the hanging gardens of Babylon she saw in classics books. Fruit trees and flourishing bushes surrounded them. And in the middle of the marble pavement, a small fountain was pouring into a rectangular pond which then fall into a waterfall on the terrace below them. Even under the stormy sky, it was beautiful. It smelled like rain and delicate tropical flowers at the same time.

"Even with the storm coming, this place is beautiful," said Hermione. "It's hard to get use to comfortable and nice places after the last couple of years."

"You had to travel a lot?" asked Susan.

"We couldn't stay in the same place for a long time, or we would get caught. I'm sure Edmund told you about the Wizarding War. I've stayed mostly in squat houses, in slums, abandoned buildings, even in the sewers. It was after our HQ was found out."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of this," whispered Susan painfully.

"It's life. I could have left the country and changes life. But I choose to stay and fight. It was my decision. I could've left with my parents to Australia."

Susan stared at her with surprise.

"Your parents let you stay there?"

Hermione sigh painfully.

"Not exactly. I forced them to leave. My parents are not wizard, they had no way to defend themselves, and they could have been target because of me."

"They accepted to left?" Susan was surprised. "My mother would never have let us stay in dangerous places, even if it had cost her life..."

Hermione winced. Susan noticed.

"I'm sorry," the queen said. "I shouldn't have insisted."

"No, it's okay, I need to accept it. It's me who sent my parents away. I'm a witch, and I altered their memories. I erased myself from them and pushed them to go to Australia."

She stopped talking for a moment and took a deep breath. Her heart was squeezing in her chest.

"But at least, I know they are safe. That they didn't die because of me."

Susan sighed and put a hand on Hermione's shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

"You are so brave." whispered Susan in her ear.

They stayed like this for a moment, trouble only by the rattle of the ocean and the wind in the leaves. Hermione had tears in her eyes she did not tried to stop from falling onto her cheeks. It had been a very long time since someone had pulled her into a hug like this. Embraces with Harry did not really count, he is like a brother to her. This was different and very pleasant.

"It's not the same," said Susan softly. "But I miss my mother so much sometimes. I haven't seen her since I'm in Narnia. I'm feeling sad and guilty sometimes at the idea that she doesn't know what happened to us, that we are safe and happy. She was so heartbroken to let us go with the children program, to keep us safe from the bombs. I worry for her every day."

Hermione had a sad smile.

"The hardest part is to learn to live without our parents. We have to live our life for ourselves, and it's so difficult sometimes to not be with them, to not reassure them, to not be reassured by them."

Susan nodded in agreement.

"And to start a family of our own.' added Susan. 'To create our own life and standards to live by."

The wind was once again getting stronger and colder, another rainstorm was getting closer. They both stood up to get back at the shooting range holding each other's hand. Hermione could feel a warm feeling growing in her chest, and it felt amazing. Susan was smiling discreetly and blushing not so discreetly.

As they walk past the edge of the terrace, they heard a rattle of swords from above them. They did not need to look up to know it was Edmund and Harry training again on Edmund's balcony.

Since they both woke up, Harry and Edmund were training, on the balcony or inside in Edmund's lounge when it was raining. Rainfall was disturbing the sky regularly since dawn and flooding the balcony.

Edmund was clearly in a bad mood and was not talking much, despite Harry's efforts. He was not the best trainer on that day. The rain had stopped pouring once again, and they went outside, on the balcony to breathe some air and to start another round of sword fight.

Edmund's hits were hard and violent. Harry had to be careful to not be cut by his moving blade. He was tempted to stop the training there, but he knew Edmund would just stay alone, depressed, and sad. If he wanted to keep him company, he had to train, which was not to please Harry's sore muscles. He was getting slower with tiredness.

Therefore, he did not see Edmund feint coming, and he let his sword fall under the shock. Edmund did not seem to notice and kept aiming his sword at him. Harry felt onto the ground. The sword was about to hit him directly on the arms that he crossed in front of his face.

"Edmund!" he screamed.

The young king seemed to notice but too late to stop. The sword violently hit Harry's forearms and the shield which wandlessly appeared in front of them. Edmund's eyes widened and he let his sword fall at his feet, and he rushed on his knees to check on Harry.

"Oh, dear god," he said. "Harry, are you okay? I'm so sorry."

He looked pathetic, and the rain which started to fall again and to wet his hair was not helping.

"I'm okay," said Harry in a hoarse voice. "But you're not going to touch this sword again today."

Edmund helped him to get back on his feet. He was patting him all over to check if he was not hurt. Harry looked slightly amused by his awkward patting and gently pushed him away.

"I told you I was okay, but you are definitely not. We should have stopped training a long time ago. You look like shit."

Edmund sighed desperately and ran a hand through his soaked hair. He walked several steps back from Harry before going toward the edge of the balcony. Harry stared at him for a moment, he looked sad, and hurt. He joined him and laid against the edge next to him. Their shoulders were touching.

"I'm… not okay" muttered Edmund, the head down.

"I've noticed, you've been like this since we came back, and even after the attack at the village," answered Harry.

"I wonder if Peter isn't right. I did fail Narnia before. I have messed up. I'm not strong enough, not brave enough. I don't deserve to be a king."

Harry put an arm around Edmund's shoulders and squeezed.

"First of all, no one deserves to be a king. You became a king because of a combination of circumstances, you deserve it after, with your actions," said Harry. "And you deserved it, Edmund. You saved Narnia in battle before if I recall Lucy's stories well. And for each time you made a mistake, you made up for it by being brave, and a better knight than before."

"But today, there is nothing I can do," he sighed.

"There is nothing no one could do. The oracle was clear, you had to find help at the edge of the world. It meant no one in Narnia could have found this out. And you went to the edge of the world, you risked your life to find help for Narnia and you found it. So far, it has not been you who is failing but me and the other wizards. We are the one who have to help here."

"Don't try to cheer me up by blaming yourself," groaned Edmund.

Harry snorted.

"I'm just telling the truth here," he said.

Harry bent toward Edmund to kiss him on the cheek.

"This is to cheer you up," he grinned.

Edmund chuckled and bent toward Harry with a grin. Their lips met, and they kissed softly. Edmund felt Harry smiling against his lips, and he put an arm behind his neck and moved his head away gently. They both smiled awkwardly for a moment before stepping back. Harry's heartbeats were sprinting like an Olympic champion. Edmund was trying to hide his blush, but his freckles made him looked like a stop road sign.

They rainfall was increasing and they both went back inside.

None of them talked about the kiss ever again. Harry was not even sure it really happened. Maybe it was just a dream. He must have been daydreaming. And Edmund detachment did not help him to think otherwise.

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't plan for them to kiss so soon by they definitly wanted to, so why not letting them have this?
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. Don't forget to tell me what you think about it! See you next time!


	5. Chapter 5

Later that day, after another never-ending rainfall, Draco left his room to walk in the gardens. He was moving slowly, in the middle of the rose garden. The dark cloud on the horizon was closer and ready to hit the castle by sundown. His mind was spiralling, and he needed to breathe. He tried to take a deep breath without success, and he continued panting. He never had been good at calming his emotions. His hands were trembling at the feel of the cold sweat falling down his spine.

He needed some time alone to not worry Blaise. He did not need to worry Blaise about this. It was his problems if he was broken and a failure, and no one else needed to be dragged in the mess he was. He always has been a mess, but he was not so good at hiding it anymore. He had the impression to fight against the whole universe, all the time.

As he was pacing along the alleys of the rose garden, Lucy saw him from her apartments and went downstairs toward him. She was always dressed in her swordswoman outfit with a large red cloak. She walked slowly to him. She could almost feel the anxiety surrounding him.

"Hey, Draco, this garden is beautiful, isn't it?" she said softly.

He turned suddenly toward her, surprised to have company. His eyes were red. He was trying to hide his emotions.

"What?" he said with a hoarse voice.

"This garden. It's really beautiful, it helps me to clear my mind when I'm not feeling so well. Does it work for you?"

Draco stood still, staring at her stunned.

"I'm okay, I don't know what you're talking about," he said turning his back and walking away.

Lucy sighed.

"You are unbelievable," she groaned.

She followed him. He was walking toward the arbour at the entrance of the rose garden, he had fastened his pace. He did not really wanted to talk about it, he was better alone. No one needed to hear his weaknesses.

She caught up with him on the top of the stairs.

"Don't run away," she said.

Draco faced her.

"I'm not running away!" he growled.

"Yes, you are. Let people help you. Open up. It's not going to hurt you more than you are already hurting."

"I doubt that," he groaned with walking down the slippery stairs. Down there was another garden with large green trees and vine climbing onto the walls. In this one, there was not a marble pavement, but grass and wildflowers.

"It's supposed to reproduce the Narnian's meadows," said Lucy behind him.

"Do it looks like I care?"

He stopped and sat on a very low branch of one very large magnolia tree. Its pink flowers were blossoming. Lucy laid against the trunk, crossed her arms and stared at him. He looked up to the tree.

"Why is it blossoming in the summer?" he asked, surprised.

Lucy chuckled at his sudden interest.

"It's enchanted to blossom all along the year," she explained, "like many of the plants here in Cair Paravel. An old Narnian trick from what I've heard."

She was not so discreetly observing him. He looked disturbed and melancholic. And even more gloomy than usual.

"So," she said. "What is happening to you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, stop playing, why were you crying in the rose garden?" she asked.

Draco sighed. He was not used to talk about himself. Lucy was really nice and kind, but she was like those people, the one he was not part of. She would not understand.

"Try me," Lucy said.

He looked up at her. Had he just spoken aloud? Shit. It was not good for him. He took a deep breath. Maybe, he could try. She would not judge him, even if she definitely would not understand.

"I'm not like you. I'm not brave," he said slowly under his breath.

"And? Why does it bother you?"

Something broke inside Draco. Maybe a barrier he had created himself. Everything was overwhelming him.

"I'm not like that, I never was. I have no idea how you can do it, how Potter can do it – even if in his case it's most likely recklessness – and even Hermione, your brother, and Blaise. They all are brave, they can just into the danger to save others like it was nothing. Like fear doesn't exist for them!"

He stopped talking and looked down again.

"It's not an absence of fears, I'm afraid, you know, it's how you deal with it. I became a Narnian knight like my brothers, even if Peter disliked it. Because I wanted to be fearless like them. But they are not fearless, they are able to control their fears to make it a strength. If you are afraid for a loved one, you will find a huge courage to protect them."

"I'm not like that, I get paralysed by fear," he mumbled.

"I saw you during the attack at the village the other day, you were fighting like everyone, you are a good fighter. Don't depreciate yourself."

He sighed heavily and ran his hand in his hair several times.

"You don't understand!" he groaned. "I'm not even sure I'll be able to defend Blaise if he was in danger, I know I would just freeze! I'm a coward! I don't deserve to be with him, I don't deserve him! I'm just a mess I don't want he to be dragged into!"

Lucy slowly shook her head.

"I believe Blaise already accepted to be dragged into your mess, or he would not be with you. He really seems to love you," she said gently. "It's not that you wouldn't be able to protect him. It's that you are afraid to not be able to do it, it's not the same thing."

He was reading to retort, but she stopped him by raising her hand.

"No," she said. "Listen to me, really. Draco, you are a great guy. You hide yourself, and Blaise might be the only one who really know you. I've noticed you were avoiding the other witches and wizards. Don't let your fears and poor self-esteem drive you away from people who are or could be your friends. If you were a coward, you wouldn't have come to Narnia in such condition."

Draco had a sad snort.

"I didn't come to help like Potter did, I'm not that good. I was in danger back in England. People didn't trust me, they thought that I was with the enemy. I just ran away," he confessed.

"Not everyone is as altruistic and selfless than Harry, but you are helping anyway. You could just have left or staid at Cair Paravel, and not put yourself in danger. But you did. So, Stop devalorising yourself."

She looked at him in the eyes. He was on the verge of crying once again.

"Bravery is about pretending. You pretend to be brave until you don't have to pretend anymore. Don't go around thinking my brothers are the bravest men in the world, they are just pretending most of the time, they are terrified at the idea of losing Narnia. But they have to pretend, so they do it. And so, can you."

They stopped talking for a moment. Drops of rainwater were falling from the flowers. It made a curious noise, almost like a melody.

"And Blaise loves you, or he wouldn't have come here with you," she added. "You should be talking to him right now, not to me. He is the one you should share your pain with. Don't hide yourself away, or he will believe you don't trust him."

Draco stared at her with surprise.

"Then why did you talk to me?" he asked.

"Because you needed to talk about it," Lucy answered. "Go see your boyfriend now."

Draco jumped from the branch to the ground.

"Thank you, Lucy."

As he was walking away, he could hear her saying "You're welcome." from behind. He let himself smiled a little. It had been a long time since he had not talk to anyone like this. He should do it more often. He was going back to his room, to Blaise. In the stairs, he met Luna who was going down, most likely to see Lucy.

Luna smiled at him but did not stop, she wanted to see Lucy and no one else. Draco rolled his eyes as they crossed path. She met her girlfriend under the magnolia with a large grin. Lucy kissed her cheek as they both sat on the low branch.

"You talked to Draco?" Luna asked.

Lucy nodded with a smile.

"Yes, he's okay, I think," she answered.

"He needs to stop hiding," smiled Luna.

Lucy chuckled.

"It's exactly what I said."

They both nodded with a large grin. Luna leaned toward Lucy gave her a very long kiss. Their relationship happened really fast. They saw it coming, like almost everyone who had seen them together after they met, and they were really happy to be able to have something so precious as love. Lucy had not seen any other human other than her siblings since a very long time, and Luna was so beautiful and honest. They were a good match. Luna had spent most of her time in Cair Paravel with Lucy and slept mostly in her apartments.

When the sun disappeared behind the ocean, all hell broke loose in the sky. The worst storm since at least a good decade hit the castle. Gigantic waves were reaching the lower balconies and terraces, flying foam was covering every gardens.

Everyone was hiding in their rooms, shutters closed. But they still could hear the terrible noise of the ocean. The rain was pouring from every direction, mostly horizontally. No one could be outside without being swept away by the violence of the elements.

The wind was a fury maybe worse than the others. The flags which had not been put away were torn into pieces and blown away by the violence of the wind. It was way past a little gale. The noise was freezing Harry's blood in his veins. He was staying with Edmund. None of them could sleep, so they kept each other company.

Walls of water was smashing against the foundations of the castle making it crumble. Thunder was rumbling, but it was almost inaudible in the middle of the rattle of the wind and the ocean.

When the night was slowly pushed away by the shy glow of the rising sun, the storm calmed down. The ocean was merely waving, the wind was nothing more than a light breeze. Every place outside were soaked in seawater and salt.

The dark clouds had been blown away by the wind at dawn and now it was almost as clear as a summer day.

After another day of royal duties and training, the decision was made to prepare a royal banquet in small committee on the great beach beneath Cair Paravel for the queens and kings and their guests of honour.

Marquees were installed above the seats and the tables, pageboy were preparing the torches, fires, and oil lamps for the sunset. Everything was ready, and the guests were arriving slowly by the tortuous stairs carved in the cliffs who had not been used for many decades – if not centuries.

The relationship between the four siblings was still tense. Or to be more precise, the relationships between Peter and the three others was tense. When Susan had learned about the fight her brothers had, she was upset. She had a discussion with Peter about it behind closed doors, but everyone heard the yelling and shouting.

They all sat around a horseshoe-shape table, facing the ocean. The diner started in a heavy silence after Peter's speech.

"I greet you all today at a feast in honour of Narnia and Aslan," he had said. "Despite the dark circumstances and the lack of progress we made so far in our quest to save and protect Narnia, our duty is to honour our guests who accepted to share our quest. No matter the cost, we will defend Narnia. We have to be brave; we have to be worthy of our duty, no failure can be accepted! To Narnia!"

And the others repeated "To Narnia!".

The only thing Edmund heard in his brother's speech was criticism. His dark mood was visible, he did not talk, did not smiled, did not even look at his brother – or at anyone. Hermione was trying to make a conversation with Peter, who was next to her. The only thing the man could talk about was the knights he selected for the missions. How brave they were, how skilled and tenacious, how intelligent, how trustworthy. And at each of his sentences, Edmund's aura was getting darker and darker. They had not talked since their fight the day before. And the odds of them talking again anytime soon was really low.

Harry was sitting next to Edmund, and he did not really talk. He tried to have a discussion with Edmund – with no success. He did not like to see him like this. He wanted to stand up and shake Peter a bit to force him to apologies. But he saw the glare Hermione sent him and he controlled himself. - He did not need to make an enemy of Peter. Not yet.

Lucy was doing her best to ignore her siblings to have a nice diner with her girlfriend, Draco and Blaise. They were on the other side of the table and had a calm and quiet conversation.

When the time for dessert came, Harry and Hermione had left the table to play with a ball they invoked. The sun was not far from the horizon line, throwing a large glimmer on the rolling sea, reflected on each crest, on each wave troughs, creating an ocean of golden glows. Torches had been set in the sand all around the banquet's tables and along the beach, waiting for the sunset. They were nonetheless already burning slowly.

Harry was throwing the ball at Hermione with a large laugh. She had the idea and he got along with it. He wanted distraction, and this was perfect. He had not played at any ball games since a very long time. But he was still fairly good at it. Behind him, at the dinner table, he could felt Edmund's eyes burning his back.

And Hermione was not bad either, even if she missed several catches up – which was related to Harry's failed shots according to her and he denied it a bit too much for it to be honest.

"Okay, okay, I might be a bit out of practice!" he laughed when she threw him the ball in the stomach when he accused her of missing a shot in bad faith.

He threw the ball back at her willingly a bit too far, and she had to step back to pick it up. When she was down, Harry suddenly felt the temperature dropping of a few degrees around them. Hermione was a dozen meters away from him. And just behind her, it appeared. He first heard the screams behind him, at the table. And then he saw it. A dark creature. Only one. It was just behind Hermione who had not yet seen it. It was reaching to touch her.

"Hermione!" he shouted. "Run! Don't look back!"

She dropped the ball and jumped to her feet. She knew everyone of Harry's tone, and this one was reserved to very worrying and dangerous situation. Only his voice made her hair stand on end. She was still too close to the creature, Harry could not cast a bombarda yet, or he would kill her as well. And it was following her. Fast. His blood was pounding in his veins. He had to do something quickly.

"Experliarmus!" he cast as strong as he could.

It was the only way. The only way to keep it away from Hermione. The creature was pushed away from them, but only of a few meters. It was strong. Hermione rushed next to Harry in a matter of second. He was still holding the spell, the second he will drop it, the creature would be on them. He was about to asked Hermione to cast a bombarda on the creature when it happened again.

A blue magnetic arc appeared from his wand, around the creature, like a firework. It cost him so much energy, so much magic to maintain the spell. He could felt a drop of sweat falling on his forehead. He heard Hermione gapped next to him.

"Holy Merlin's beard!" she muttered.

The arc was consuming too much energy.

"Mione!" he grunted. "Blew him up! Quickly!"

"We are too close!" she gasped.

"Do it!"

The young woman sighed and cast "Bombarda Maxima!"

The second the spell left Hermione's wand, Harry dropped his and threw himself on her, tackling her onto the ground as the creature exploded violently next to them. They should have been dead or at least badly injured if Luna had not cast a shielding spell around them.

Harry bumbled up and helped Hermione up as soon as the creature disappeared.

"That was close," he sighed.

"I shouldn't have listened to you," Hermione groaned. "You are going to get us killed one day, Harry."

He winced and shrugged his shoulders.

"Hopefully not," said dryly Edmund as he got closer to them. "Are you okay?"

They both nodded and Harry felt that Edmund was restricting himself from patting him again and he stopped a grin from invading his face. Instead, he patted his shoulder with a very small smile.

The rest of the Pevensies rushed to them.

"How on earth a dark creature can appear in Cair Paravel?!" barked Peter.

"And why?" added Susan with a frown.

It was the first time one of these creatures had appeared someplace else than at the borders.

"Their pattern is changing," said Blaise.

Everyone looked at him.

"Why now?" he continued. "Why appearing now? Is there something about this place, or the time of day? And why only one when at the borders they were in pack?"

They all shared a surprised stare. And Blaise added "We spent hours in the castle this past few days, we were vulnerable, why not attacking us back then?"

Draco's face lit up next to him.

"It's because they can't!" he whispered, and then he repeated out loud. "They can't attack in the castle, there are something about it. And it possible that only one appeared because it's difficult for them to get here, in this part of the kingdom."

Blaise looked at his boyfriend and winked at him with a discreet grin. Harry nodded vigorously.

"You are a genius, Malfoy!" exclaimed Harry.

Next to him Blaise whispered, 'He is my genius' and Hermione scowled at them.

"But why now?" asked again Edmund with a frown.

"They are attacking us," said Luna.

"We already knew that" snorted Peter, rolling his eyes at her. Lucy hit him in the ribs and told him to shut up. Luna smiled at her and continued speaking.

"They are attacking us, not you," she told Peter. "The witches and the wizards. We are their target. They know we are here to defeat them."

"And can you even know that?" snorted Peter.

That time, even Hermione and Harry scowled at Peter and Susan hit him behind the head.

"If we know, if the Oracle know, why wouldn't they?" said Susan with a sigh. "Please, Peter, stop being an ass for more than five seconds and listen to Luna, she had already helped us a lot."

They all started to walk back to the castle when Hermione called out to them.

"We aren't going to talk about it?" she shouted.

They all stopped and looked at her.

"A bloody magnetic arc appeared, and no one seems to care!" she squealed.

"It's not normal with magic?" asked Edmund surprised.

"It already happened last time," said Harry shrugging his shoulders.

Hermione sighed again.

"And you wonder why I went along in this trip," she muttered. "It's not normal, it's a reaction to the creature's nature and relation to magic! It's the key to this situation!"

"But what does it mean?" said Blaise. "It's just a magnetic arc, we saw plenty of this during the war."

"Exactly! We can understand this!" Hermione said. "It's why we are here!"

They had no answer to this so far, except Hermione's instinct. Harry trusted her. She always had good instinct when it comes to deduction. They had to go back to the castle, the sun was down, and the darkness looked even less appealing after this apparition.

The guards had been doubled around the castle and the harbour for the night. They all feared another attack, a stronger one. They went to sleep with a feeling of anxiety and terror. Cair Paravel was not so peaceful anymore. Everything was falling apart.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it, don't hesitate to send me a comment, I would love to hear you thought about this chapter :)


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